Politics
The United Nations has designated Kashmir as a disputed territory on its standard world map. The General Assembly approved a resolution on adopting a new map, with India also voting in favor of the resolution.
The United Nations has designated Kashmir as a disputed territory on its standard world map. The General Assembly approved a resolution on adopting a new map, with India also voting in favor of the resolution. The resolution adopted by the United Nations supports replacing the traditional Mercator projection with the Equal Earth projection. A total of 164 countries, including India, voted in favor of the UN’s standard Equal Earth map. The map has challenged India’s long-standing narrative that Kashmir is an integral part of the country.
The world map presented by the United Nations shows Kashmir as a disputed territory, while the Line of Control (LoC) is marked with a dotted line. This has once again highlighted Kashmir’s disputed status at the international level. By voting in favor of a world map that depicts Kashmir as a disputed territory, India has faced criticism over its long-standing position on the region. The vote has also raised questions about New Delhi’s claim that Kashmir is an internal matter of India. Following domestic criticism, India’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a vague clarification, stating that its vote was in support of the geographical proportions of the map and not the borders depicted on it.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the Indian clarification, stating that the map approved by the United Nations is internationally recognized and that Kashmir’s disputed status is clearly established through UN resolutions. It is worth noting that India has for decades used mapping laws and regulations to put pressure on technology companies and international organizations over the depiction of its borders. Pakistan maintains that India’s vote in favor of the UN’s standard map supports its principled position on the Kashmir dispute.
