China has taken the opportunity of defending the presence of its army units in Gilgit-Baltistan to reiterate its position that Kashmir is a disputed territory. This statement was made by Chinese authorities after the Indian army chief objected to this presence. India, through its army chief, is once again engaged in a non-existent Great Game, long over since the times of the British Raj. It is because of the same paranoia that India engaged in its 1962 War with China. However, of late, it has tried to mend fences with China, and if the Indian Vice-President, Hamid Ansari, is to be given credence, with Pakistan. Mr Ansari, talking to the media on Sunday, said that there was no need for third-party mediation between the two because we can talk to each other in five different languages. Pakistan should not forget that the Kashmir dispute is not just between India and Pakistan, but China is also a party, not just because it borders the Jammu and Kashmir state, but because in the Northern Areas, its border demarcation, in which Pakistan gave up territory, awaits Indian ratification. It is worth noting that any power which has dealt with India has found it an obdurate and grasping negotiator, unwilling at all to accept reality. In Kashmir, for example, India is unable to accept that the long outstanding dispute can be solved only by the mechanism to which it has itself agreed, that of a UN-supervised plebiscite which will allow the Kashmiri people to exercise their right of self-determination. It should not ignore the reality that resolving the Kashmir dispute would not just enable it to improve relations with Pakistan, but also with China. Despite this, India not only ignores what is naturally just, but also the current freedom struggle in Kashmir, in which the people clearly and firmly reject Indian occupation as well as the black laws it has imposed on the people of that region. Kashmiris have shown, even at the cost of their lives, that the struggle for self-determination will continue into yet another generation. Pakistan should pay heed to the Chinese reiteration of its position, and must not deviate from its own principled stand. It must also be clear who its friends are, keeping in mind that the USA is trying to prop up India as a regional counterweight to China, which in turn is trying to help Pakistan develop, without threats, coercion or strings attached.