India Slams Sino-Pakistani Bus Service in Kashmir

A map of the disputed border claims between Pakistan, India, and China.

India spoke strongly on October 31 against the soon-to-launch China-Pakistan bus service that will cross through the highly disputed Kashmir-Jammu region, according to Times of India.

India has raised serious concerns over the service’s reliance on what India refers to as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for the transit routes. The spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Raveesh Kumar, stated that the “so-called China-Pakistan 'Boundary Agreement' of 1963 is illegal and invalid and has never been recognised by the government of India,” according to the Times of India. The Sino-Pakistani provision referenced by Kumar was a bilateral treaty, which handed over a region of northern Kashmir-Jammu, known as the Trans-Karakoram Tract, to China. India not only rejects this agreement but also claims sovereignty over parts of Kashmir-Jammu that the bus service plans to travel across.

Chinese and Pakistani sources, including Muhammad Anwar, a Pakistani businessman, frame this development as a benefit to growing “friendship,” report CanIndia and NDTV.

The new bus project is part of the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), itself part of China’s larger Belt and Road Initiative. This bus service is said to contribute to connecting “resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Balochistan’s Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea,” according to NDTV. China plans to use its Belt and Road Initiative to expand both its economic and geopolitical competitiveness.

India, however, has stood firmly against the Belt and Road Initiative since its inception, claiming that China’s expansionary plans demonstrate a lack of respect for “countries’ territorial integrity” and allegedly leaves partners in “debt traps,” reports CanIndia. In May 2017, India refused to attend the Belt and Road Forum, according to Carnegie India. Kumar conveyed these sentiments when he said, "any such bus service through Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir will be a violation of India's sovereignty and territorial integrity,” reported Times of India.

The Kashmir-Jammu region has been subject to conflict and various territorial disputes between India, Pakistan, and China since the end of the British Raj in 1947. After a UN Commission failed to enact an effective resolution, India and Pakistan have attempted to improve relations with varying success.

The bus service, which is set to begin operating as soon as November 13, will run four days a week between the Chinese city of Kashgar and the Pakistani city of Lahore, reported the state-run Radio Pakistan. The same broadcast said that the “luxurious buses” would include WiFi and food at all times of the day. It also reported that tickets, which have began to sell, cost between $97 and $172, depending on distance and point of purchase. 

It is important to note that there are currently bus services running between Delhi,  Lahore, Srinagar in India-administered Kashmir-Jammu, and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir-Jammu.