US Removes Post On India Trade Deal With Map Including PoK, Aksai Chin

The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has deleted its X post showing a map of India that aligns with the official map of India showing the entire region of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin, as Indian territory. 

Parts of the region are illegally claimed by Pakistan and China.

The map posted by the US on February 7 had caught attention, as it was a clear departure from the historical American practice of marking PoK and Aksai Chin as disputed areas.

The graphic was part of the announcement on the bilateral interim framework agreement on trade, soon after New Delhi and Washington announced they had agreed on the terms of the deal. It showed India's reduction of tariffs on US exports.

Many analysts believed that the move was a deliberate geopolitical nod to India, amid the United States' sketchy relations with both Pakistan and China. Some speculated it was an oversight, even though Washington's strategic support to India was seen to have been restored—as a counterweight in the Indo-Pacific—after being briefly eclipsed by tariff tensions.

But ending the debate, the USTR has removed the post from its official X account.

US Policy On India Map

In the past, maps of India circulated by US authorities had carried demarcation lines indicating PoK and Aksai Chin as disputed areas. In contrast, the now-deleted version posted by the USTR did not carry any such markings and instead depicted the whole region as an integral part of India.

India's Stand

India has consistently maintained that the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh "has been, is and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India." New Delhi also maintains that Aksai Chin is an integral part of Indian territory.