Beijing on Thursday said it was not aware of India’s protest to the bus services planned between China and Pakistan along the route of disputed Kashmir, maintaining the CPEC has nothing to do with the territorial dispute between New Delhi and Islamabad.

According to Pakistani media reports, a private transport company would flag off the bus service between Lahore and China’s Kashgar in Xinjiang province under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on 13 November.

The launch coincides with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan’s four-day China visit beginning from Friday.

India on Wednesday had said that it had lodged protests with China and Pakistan over the proposed bus service. Indian opposes the CPEC as its planned route cuts through Kashmir held by Pakistan.

Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar called the so-called China-Pakistan “Boundary Agreement” of 1963 “illegal and invalid”.

“… Therefore, any such bus service through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir will be a violation of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.

Asked about India’s protest, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said: “As for the bus service, I have not heard of the relevant information and I have not heard of complaints.

“I have taken many questions regarding the CPEC. It is an economic cooperation project between China and Pakistan and not targeted at any third party.

“It has nothing to do with the territorial dispute and it will not affect China’s principled position on the issue of Kashmir,” Lu added.

The CPEC is the main project of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative which connects China’s Kashgar with Pakistan’s Gwadar port in Balochistan.

Raveesh Kumar on Wednesday had asserted that the bus service will be a violation of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The MEA spokesperson was responding to media queries regarding the proposed bus service.

According to reports, the new bus service will be launched between Lahore in Pakistan and Kashgar in China via Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on November 13.

The USD 50-billion CPEC, launched in 2015, is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking China’s resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.

(With agency inputs)