ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have formally launched a joint commission agreed 13 years ago to manage their shared frontier, facilitate trade and oversee cross-border movement, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, amid objections from India over what it views as the disputed territorial status of the region.

The inaugural meeting of the Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission was held in Islamabad on Sept. 16-17, formally activating a mechanism envisaged under a 2013 boundary management agreement between the two countries, the ministry said in a statement.

“Both sides described the establishment of the Commission as a vital milestone in further strengthening the Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership,” the statement said.

“The discussions at the inaugural meeting covered wide-ranging matters related to border management and cooperation, including cross-border coordination, movement of goods and people, joint border survey and people-to-people linkages,” it added.

The commission provides a formal mechanism for managing the mountainous frontier between Pakistan and China, which includes the Khunjerab Pass, the two countries’ only land crossing and a key route for bilateral trade and connectivity under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The two sides signed minutes setting out a framework for future cooperation under the commission and agreed to hold its next meeting in China at mutually agreed dates.

The commission has, however, drawn objections from neighboring India, which does not recognize the 1963 China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement and says Pakistan has no authority to enter into arrangements concerning territory New Delhi claims as its own.

India claims the entire former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in full.

The former princely state also included Gilgit-Baltistan, a mountainous region under Pakistan’s control that borders China and through which the Karakoram Highway runs to the Khunjerab Pass.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan rejected India’s objections at his weekly news briefing.

“Pakistan categorically rejects India’s baseless and legally untenable assertions concerning the Pakistan-China Boundary Agreement of 1963 and the Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission,” he told reporters on Thursday.

“The 1963 Agreement is a valid arrangement concluded between Pakistan and China,” he continued, reiterating Islamabad’s position that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory whose final status should be determined in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

The launch of the commission comes as Pakistan and China seek to deepen trade and transport links under CPEC, a multibillion-dollar infrastructure network connecting China’s western Xinjiang region with Pakistan’s Arabian Sea port of Gwadar.

The Khunjerab route has also been used more recently for Pakistan’s trade with Central Asian states amid Islamabad’s deteriorating relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban administration.