Pakistan Map Shows J&K And Junagarh As Its Territories At The SCO Meeting, India Walks Out
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2020-09-16 12:35:25
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India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval walked out of a virtual meeting of the NSAs of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) after Pakistan used a map that showed Indian territory as its own as the background image of the meeting. This violated the SCO charter which prevents countries from raising bilateral disputes in any meetings of the SCO.
It needs remembering that Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan had issued a new map of the country that showed the entire erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir (which India has now bifurcated into two separate union territories as Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh) and Junagrah in Gujarat as part of Pakistan. Russia, as chairman of the meeting, tried to dissuade Pakistan from using the map as the background image without success. Hence, Doval refused to take further part in the deliberations.
Is there a concerted effort by some neighbouring countries to hit on India's territorial integrity by claiming parts of Indian territory as theirs? If so, is China influencing this policy? The Chinese have repeatedly said that the LAC does not properly demarcate its border with India. They have laid claim to many part of India, notably Arunachal Pradesh, and are now making active thrusts at many points on the LAC to enter into India. This has led to a standoff between the two countries for the last 6 months. Then, Nepal had recently tried to claim parts of Uttarakhand and Pakistan has always claimed J&K as its own while it has recently raised new claims on Junagarh in Gujarat.
India's Chief of Defence Staff had recently warned that China and Pakistan, acting in concert, can engage India on many fronts in case of war. The repeated attempts by these countries to create disputes at the border shows that the warning might not be totally untrue. Since Pakistan is a vital player in China's Belt and Road initiative and the Chinese have consistently supported the nation in international forums, military cooperation between them in the event of and Indo-China conflict cannot be ruled out.
India did well to register its protest at the SCO meeting. The Indian army has shown exemplary courage and a high level of preparedness when facing the Chinese at the LAC flashpoints. It has to be on guard on the Western frontier too as the Pakistanis cannot be trusted. They have everything to gain by supporting China in the event of a war and can even pitch in by opening conflict zones on the Western front. The renewed efforts to claim Indian territory are now no longer limited as posturing for a domestic audience but have assumed a bigger geopolitical significance due to its all-weather ally China's expansionist policies.
