After the 2018 tensions between India and China regarding the construction of around 70 km of metalled road in the Shaksgam Valley.
Similar actions recently have prompted India to protest against China’s attempt to include the Shaksgam Valley in its territory by building a road.
On Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said “India has registered its protest with Beijing against China’s “illegal attempts” to “alter facts on the ground” in the Shaksgam valley of occupied Kashmir, which faces the Siachen glacier.”
“We have never accepted the so-called China-Pakistan boundary agreement of 1963 through which Pakistan unlawfully attempted to cede the area to China,” Jaiswal added.
About the Shaksgam Valley
The Trans-Karakoram Tract, also known as the Shaksgam Tract, is a disputed area approximately 5,200 km² north of the Karakoram watershed, including the Shaksgam valley.
North of the Karakoram Mountain range (pass) in eastern Ladakh, this valley connects China’s Xinjiang province with Pakistan’s Illegally Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit Baltistan. 
In the China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963, an illegal border agreement, Pakistan illegally ceded 5,180 square kilometres of Indian territory in Shaksgam Valley to China on March 2, 1963.
However, India maintains this agreement to be illegal as Pakistan illegally occupied it from Ladakh. It has also maintained China continues to be in illegal occupation of approximately 38,000 sq km of Indian territory in Ladakh for the past six decades.
Road’s impact on India
China carrying out construction activities in the Shaksgam Valley as Beijing’s attempt to alter the situation on the ground by physical occupation could potentially threaten Indian defences in the Siachen Glacier. India will face threats from Pakistan in the South and China in the north.
As the new road transverses through the 16333-foot Aghil Pass and could provide an alternative alignment to Karakoram Pass via Upper Shaksgam and thereon to Khunjerab Pass in the northern areas of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Satellite images showed the Chinese road approaching Aghil Pass. Construction resumed this month in areas north of Siachen Glacier which was shared by a satellite image watcher on X.
Thread:
In a significant development, 🇨🇳 road has breached the border at Aghil Pass (4805 m) and entered the lower Shaksgam valley of Kashmir, 🇮🇳 with the road-head now less than 30 miles from 🇮🇳 Siachen
This permanently answers the question of Shaksgam for 🇮🇳
1/4 pic.twitter.com/TyjMcUqz2S
— Nature Desai (@NatureDesai) April 21, 2024
