The United States Trade Representative's office has quietly removed a contentious social media post that featured a map of India depicting Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Aksai Chin as integral Indian territory.

Shared on X on 7 February 2026, the graphic accompanied an announcement of a bilateral interim framework agreement on trade between New Delhi and Washington. This move surprised observers, as it diverged sharply from longstanding US practice.

Historically, official US maps and documents have marked PoK—controlled by Pakistan since 1947—and Aksai Chin, under Chinese administration since the 1962 Sino-Indian war, as disputed territories. 

These demarcations typically featured dashed lines to denote contested status, aligning with a neutral stance in the India-Pakistan and India-China territorial disputes.

The USTR's map, however, presented Jammu and Kashmir, including Ladakh, as undivided Indian sovereign land, mirroring New Delhi's official cartography.

The post highlighted India's tariff reductions on key US exports, such as automobiles, machinery, and agricultural goods, under the nascent trade deal. 

Negotiated amid broader US efforts to bolster supply chains in the Indo-Pacific, the agreement aims to ease bilateral trade frictions exacerbated by reciprocal tariffs imposed during the previous administration. Its timing coincided with heightened geopolitical tensions, lending the map added significance.

Analysts swiftly noted the anomaly. Many interpreted it as a subtle diplomatic signal from Washington, affirming India's territorial claims at a moment when US-Pakistan ties remain strained over Islamabad's reluctance to fully sever economic links with China.

Relations with Beijing, meanwhile, are fraught amid ongoing trade wars and military posturing in the South China Sea. For India, a key Quad partner, such a gesture could underscore America's strategic pivot eastward.

Others dismissed it as an administrative oversight—a hasty graphic prepared without the usual vetting by the State Department's cartographic experts. This view gained traction given the post's rapid deletion, roughly 48 hours after it went live, without any official explanation from the USTR. The account's timeline now shows no trace of the original content, fuelling speculation about internal damage control.

India's position on these territories remains unequivocal. New Delhi insists that the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, including areas under Pakistani and Chinese control, "has been, is, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India." This stance, reiterated in official maps since the 2019 abrogation of Article 370, rejects any notion of dispute and views PoK as illegally occupied, while Aksai Chin forms part of Ladakh.

The episode echoes past frictions over mapping. In 2020, Twitter faced Indian government ire for labelling Indian maps that included PoK as "disputed," prompting temporary blocks of critical accounts. More recently, US tech firms like Google have aligned their services with India's map policy to avoid regulatory backlash, setting a precedent for private entities but rarely extended to government organs.

Geopolitically, the map's appearance aligns with Washington's deepening defence and technology ties with India. Joint initiatives like iCET (Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology) and drone co-production under the Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 framework have flourished, positioning India as a counterbalance to China's regional dominance. Trade normalisation, including the removal of certain tariff barriers noted in recent factsheets, further cements this partnership.

Pakistan's response was predictably sharp, with officials labelling the map a "provocation" and summoning the US chargé d'affaires in Islamabad. Beijing, through state media, decried it as "misguided interference," reaffirming its claim over Aksai Chin as part of Xinjiang. Yet neither lodged a formal protest with the USTR, suggesting a reluctance to derail broader US engagements.

For the trade deal itself, the deletion appears inconsequential. Valued at an estimated $10-15 billion in initial tariff relief, it covers sectors like pulses, steel, and pharmaceuticals, addressing imbalances from India's $30 billion goods surplus with the US in 2025. Negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement continue, with both sides eyeing a 2027 timeline.

This incident underscores the delicate interplay of commerce and cartography in great-power diplomacy. While the USTR's post may have been fleeting, it highlights shifting US postures towards India's territorial integrity amid intensifying Indo-Pacific rivalries. New Delhi will likely view the original depiction as validation, even if short-lived, of its long-held claims.

Based On NDTV Report