Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Unsettled territorial disputes between India and Pakistan over the ownership of the disputed region of Kashmir remain a "permanent source of tension" in relations between the two countries.

Kashmir is divided between Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan) and India (Jammu and Kashmir state), but both countries claim the entire region. Since 1947, because of this, wars have already broken out twice.

A new round of escalation of this problem was caused by the decision of the Pakistani government to transform part of the territory of the Kashmir region - the Gilgit-Baltistan region, which is under Pakistani control, into a temporary province of the country.

About this on 2 November 2020, Pakistani Prime Minister I. Khan himself announced during his speech at a pre-election rally in Gilgit (the capital of Gilgit-Baltistan). He explained the need for such a decision by the desire of the country’s authorities to provide the population of the region with equal constitutional rights against the backdrop of the strengthening of New Delhi’s territorial claims to this region.

He also lashed out with harsh criticism of the Indian side, accusing it of continuing discriminatory and violent policies against the Muslim population in the Indian part of the Kashmir region.

These statements by the Pakistani prime minister and the decision to change the status of the disputed region - Gilgit-Baltistan - caused a sharp negative reaction from India. Indian Foreign Ministry officials described Pakistan’s desire to formally annex the area as "an attempt to disguise the illegal occupation", saying that "Islamabad has no competence in the territories forcibly occupied by it."

The Indian Foreign Ministry also called on Islamabad to immediately release the disputed areas, stressing that "Gilgit-Baltistan will remain an integral part of India due to the legal and complete annexation of Kashmir to India in 1947."

Commenting on the decision of the Pakistani authorities, which provoked a new round of tension in the confrontation with India, most experts regard the goals of transforming Gilgit-Baltistan into a province of the country as a "response" to the downgrading in 2019 by New Delhi of the status of the Indian part of the region - Jammu and Kashmir, which is also claimed by Islamabad.

It was these steps by India, according to the BBC, that "brought to naught" all attempts by the parties to normalize relations and resolve territorial disputes through dialogue, sharply increasing the "degree of tension" between regional opponents.

In turn, observers of the Guardian edition associate the announced decision with the internal situation in Pakistan. The excessive deterioration of the socio-economic situation in the country previously caused a wave of protests in many provinces and led to the unification of all 11 opposition forces against the ruling party, Tehreek-i-Insaf.

This became a vivid indicator of the unprecedented decline in the popularity of I. Khan and his party on the eve of the Senate elections to be held in March 2021. In these conditions, by changing the status of the disputed region, the head of government is obviously pursuing personal goals.

In this context, the publication Al Jazeera draws attention to the fact that, despite the growing contradictions, all political forces in Pakistan adhere to a single position on raising the status of Gilgit-Baltistan.

This, in particular, is evidenced by the held in September of this year, meeting of opposition parties with the leaders of the army and intelligence of the country. During these negotiations, they expressed their strong support for changing the status of the disputed region.

At the same time, experts interviewed by Diplomat point to the likelihood of China’s involvement in the decision-making process. In this context, the fact is taken into account that lately it is Beijing that has been acting as the main military-political ally and financial support of Islamabad.

The Politico publication also explains this assumption by the presence of China’s own fundamental contradictions and territorial disputes with India in Kashmir (in the Ladakh region), which in July of this year. once again escalated into a military clash.

Taking this into account, the main “beneficiary” of the region’s formal integration with Pakistan will probably be China, which intends to comprehensively increase pressure on India through the formation of an “anti-Indian alliance” from among the regional countries (Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka), strongly dependent on China in economic and military-political terms.

Moreover, it is through the territory of the Gilgit-Baltistan region that the flagship project of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative - the Sino-Pakistani Economic Corridor (worth US$60 billion) - is being held, against which India continues to resolutely oppose.

Launched in 2014, CPEC is a complex of commercial, industrial, transport and infrastructure projects designed to connect China with the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.

In this context, from the point of view of the Times observers, the formal entry of this territory into Pakistan will enable the PRC to “freely penetrate” the region, accelerate the pace of projects and simplify the process of ensuring the security of an important corridor from Chinese Xinjiang to Gilgit-Baltistan.

In general, Pakistan’s desire to formally integrate the disputed region into the country and the possible involvement of China in this process shows that Beijing and Islamabad have embarked on a course of collectively defending their interests in the territorial dispute with India. This situation also underlines that the “Kashmir problem” will not receive a practical solution for the foreseeable future and will serve as a major factor of discord in the region.