Page:CIA-RDP08C01297R000100120005-5.pdf/3

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/04 CIA RDP08C01297R000100120005-5

LIMITED OFFICIAL USE

- 3 -

Longitude 74° 34′ E. and Latitude 37° 03′ N. ...". The identical point is thus supplied with coordinates approximately 2 miles apart. While the difference is not significant in this essentially uncharted territory, it does raise a technical question. (See attached map.)

The more important issue, however, is the apparent movement of the aforementioned tripoint approximately 3 miles to the east of the location shown on British medium-scale, topographic maps. The change in the position of the tripoint would displace the Afghanistan-Hunza boundary a similar distance eastward. However, since the Afghan and Chinese Communist Governments both have annexed their own maps to the treaty--implying differences in features and/or locations--the treaty coordinates may actually be a compromise between two differing map positions. As a result, the coordinates would represent only a movement of the mapped location rather than an actual alteration of the boundary or a transfer of territory. The eventual publication of the two demarcation commissions' maps--the Sino-Afghan and Sino-Pakistani--will probably solve the riddle of the exact location of the tripoint.

LIMITED OFFICIAL USE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/04 CIA-RDP08C01297R000100120005-5