“The Government is aware of the gross inaccuracies, in the map of India, on the US State Department website. The Government has consistently rejected incorrect depiction of India's borders on maps used by the US Government. It has used every opportunity to convey to the US side its concern in this regard, and has asked that these maps be corrected”, Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said and added “This position was reiterated by a senior MEA official to the US Deputy Chief of Mission today, who assured us that the US Embassy would convey our concerns to the US State Department.

The Indian Foreign Secretary, Ranjan Mathai was clarifying the issue before mediapersons at the margins of the Fourth MEA-IISS-IDSA Foreign Policy Dialogue on the theme ‘Towards Stability in Asia’ here on Monday.

India believes that the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and has consistently conveyed to the international community that maps of India should depict the boundaries of our country correctly. It also believes that the area designated as Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir was forcefully acquired by Pakistan since 1947, after the whole of J&K acceded to India

However, the US State Department website carries a pointer to the Indian claim over that portion of Aksai Chin in the Ladakh region of J&K which is currently occupied by China.

When asked about the US State Department's website showing POK as Pakistan territory, Mathai said the matter was now being discussed in the external affairs ministry. 'It is being discussed right now within the ministry. I can respond to that question only after getting back to the ministry,' he said.

The Indian foreign secretary said the ministry was 'increasingly issuing demarches to most of the world' for getting India's map wrong.

'I have been in this business and I have done this a couple of hundred times over the last 35 years. Cartography is not an exact science, particularly when viewed with a political outlook by various countries,' he said.

Recently, a Chinese private company distributed a brochure at a business meeting which carried a map showing Arunachal Pradesh as part of China, resulting in a spat between Chinese ambassador to India Zhang Yan and an Indian journalist, who objected to it.

Delivering his keynote address at the Fourth MEA-IISS-IDSA Foreign Policy Dialogue on the theme ‘Towards Stability in Asia’ the Indian Foreign Secretary said : 'In our dialogue with China, we needed a stable arrangement on the border so that we work towards a common agenda with China in those areas where it suits us.'

In the context of China's military build-up along the Line of Actual Control with India, Mathai said India too was in the process of building its own infrastructure in the area.

India and China share an unresolved 4,500-km border and are in the process of putting in place a new mechanism to talk about the dispute and to settle it at a future date. A meeting of their special reprresentatives on the border issue is to be held later this year.

Matha further said “India is a meeting point of influences of West, North, East and South East Asia.”

He highlighted the “Importance of developing structures of regional dialogue and cooperation through security and economic architectures aimed at achieving common objectives”.

Speaking on stability in the Af-Pak region, he emphasised on the need for stability at the border and the regions surrounding them for the peace efforts to succeed.

Referring to US Secretary of State, Ms Hillary Clinton’s recent observations on the ‘New Silk Route’ Mathai reiterated that an attempt was being made to seek a consensus on economic cooperation from Turkey to South Asia and from Central Asia to the Gulf, passing through Central Asia, which has been looked upon as the heart of the continent. He further added that the new Silk Route was important for seeking common economic and security structures and lock in the synergies and interdependence.

“From India’s point of view the new Silk Route is important for establishing connectivity through Central Asia and beyond and it is in this context that Iran needs to be discussed”, he said. Moreover, he stressed on developing common energy, economic and security institutions to harness growth and meet infrastructural needs.

Further, speaking on the issue of terrorism, the Foreign Secretary emphasised that India was amongst the few countries to have preserved the values of democratic and secular institutions, even in the midst of sustained terrorist campaigns and therefore it was important to find institutional mechanisms in the form of policy making decisions to tackle the problem.

Elaborating on India’s role in building Security and Economic structures in South Asia, he spoke about India’s efforts towards national reconstruction in Afghanistan, normalising its relationship with Pakistan through trade and settling many outstanding issues with Bangladesh.

Further, commenting on India’s relations with China, he said, both India and China should compete as well as cooperate with each other and a solution to their problems will lead to strengthening of the Brazil, Russia, India China and South Africa Forum (BRICS). He concluded by emphasising that it was time to dwell on the concept of Inclusive Asia in order to build stability in the continent and the world at large.