UN 'Correct the Map' Resolution Reignites India-Pakistan Row Over Jammu & Kashmir Depiction

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution titled 'Correct the Map: Rebalancing Global Cartographic Representation and Promoting Equitable Representation of the World's Regions, Particularly Africa' on September 4, 2026, with 164 countries — including both India and Pakistan — voting in favour and the United States voting against. The resolution addresses distortions in the relative size of continents on commonly used map projections (notably the Mercator projection's exaggeration of higher-latitude landmasses at Africa's expense) and does not itself address political boundaries. India's Ministry of External Affairs, in an explanation of vote issued September 6 by spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, said India's support for the resolution did not amount to endorsing any particular map, projection or depiction of national boundaries, and stated that India's sovereign territory — including the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh — 'must be depicted in accordance with India's official map,' calling New Delhi's position on sovereignty and territorial integrity 'clear, consistent and non-negotiable.' The statement was widely read as pre-empting continued UN cartographic practice of showing J&K's Line of Control as a dotted, disputed boundary with a caveat that final status is unresolved. Pakistan's Foreign Office, through spokesperson Ambassador Sajjad Haider Khan, rejected India's position on September 7, calling it 'baseless assertions regarding the status of Jammu and Kashmir which are contrary to internationally recognized facts' and stating that 'India's unilateral actions and continued illegal occupation cannot alter the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir.' Khan said the official UN maps depicting J&K as disputed 'remain the only cartographic representation of its current legal status' and reiterated Pakistan's call for a UN-supervised plebiscite under Security Council resolutions. Pakistan separately clarified it had backed the resolution only for its stated purpose of correcting continental landmass proportions, 'not countries' political maps and boundaries.'