India warns against inaccurate depiction of territory in new UN-backed equal-area world map

NEW DELHI: After endorsing a UN General Assembly resolution on equal-area world map, the govt warned Sunday that the proposed new map must depict India's sovereign territory, including the Union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, in accordance with India's official map and any inaccurate or misleading depiction would be unacceptable. "Our position on India's sovereignty and territorial integrity is clear, consistent and non-negotiable," said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, replying to media queries.

MEA: Resolution doesn't endorse any specific map

India was among the 164 countries that voted in favour of UN General Assembly's Sept 4 resolution, "Correct the Map: Rebalancing Global Cartographic Representation and Promoting Equitable Representation of the World's Regions, Particularly Africa". MEA said the resolution's purpose is to encourage the use of equal-area map projections that preserve the relative sizes of continental landmasses, and it neither adopts nor authenticates any particular world map, nor does it address political cartography, including international boundaries, disputed territories or place names. "India voted in favour of the resolution and also made an explanation, stressing the underlying principle of promoting equal-area cartographic representation. We also highlighted that the resolution does not constitute endorsement of any specific map, projection or depiction of national boundaries," said Randhir Jaiswal. The resolution received abstentions from Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine, and a lone vote against it from US.

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The resolution noted that the Mercator projection remains widely used in educational, media, digital and official materials, despite the considerable distortion of landmasses to the North and South, far from the equator. It expressed concern that this distortion contributed to minimising the perceived sizes of Africa, Latin America and South Asia, and perpetuating an unbalanced view of the world. India welcomed the intention behind the resolution to promote more accurate and representative cartographic practices.

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