Pakistan and China Hold Inaugural Boundary Joint Commission Meeting in Islamabad; India Rejects It as Having 'No Legal Basis'

Pakistan and China held the inaugural meeting of a new Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission in Islamabad on September 16, 2026, co-led by Li Ya, deputy director-general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, and Bilal Mahmood Chaudhary, director-general (China) at Pakistan's Foreign Ministry. Islamabad described the commission — intended to cover border management, joint surveys, trade flows and people-to-people connectivity under the 1963 Sino-Pakistan Frontier Agreement — as a 'significant milestone' in bilateral ties. India's Ministry of External Affairs responded the same day through spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, rejecting the commission outright: 'There is no boundary between Pakistan and China. We reject the so-called Joint Commission, which is without any legal basis,' he said, adding that India has never recognized the 1963 'China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement' as it concerns Indian territory in Gilgit-Baltistan and Shaksgam under Pakistani or Chinese control, calling it 'illegal and invalid.' Jaiswal said 'Pakistan has no locus standi to enter into arrangements concerning Indian territory under its illegal and forcible occupation' and called on Pakistan to 'vacate from areas under its illegal and forcible occupation' rather than 'engaging in such theatrics.' Neither Pakistan nor China had responded to India's rejection as of September 16.