New Delhi: India on Sunday (September 6) clarified that its vote in favour of a United Nations General Assembly resolution aimed at correcting distortions in the relative size of continents on commonly used world maps did not amount to an endorsement of any particular map or projection, and underlined that its territories including Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh must be depicted in accordance with its official map.“India’s sovereign territory, including the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, must be depicted in accordance with India’s official map,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement on Sunday. “Any inaccurate or misleading depiction is unacceptable. Our position on India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is clear, consistent and non-negotiable.”The ministry also stressed that “the resolution neither adopts nor authenticates any particular world map, nor does it address political cartography, including international boundaries, disputed territories or place names”. It added that India’s vote “does not constitute endorsement of any specific map, projection, or depiction of national boundaries.”The clarification followed India’s explanation of vote at the UN General Assembly two days earlier, when New Delhi supported the broader principle of using equal-area map projections but had explicitly mentioned that it was not endorsing the Equal Earth projection.“We believe that the resolution should be understood as supporting the broader use and consideration of equal-area map projections and not as endorsing the Equal Earth projection, or any other specific map projection,” said Indian diplomat Raghoo Puri.He said equal-area projections were relevant because they preserve the relative sizes or areas of continental and territorial landmasses, helping address distortions in perceived landmass size arising from projections designed primarily to preserve other characteristics such as shape, direction or distance.“At the same time, different projections serve different cartographic purposes. No single projection is necessarily appropriate for every application,” Puri said, arguing that the resolution should remain “technologically and methodologically neutral” and leave countries, institutions and cartographers to determine the projection most appropriate for their specific needs.The resolution, titled “Correct the Map: Rebalancing Global Cartographic Representation and Promoting Equitable Representation of the World’s Regions, Particularly Africa,” was adopted by the General Assembly with an overwhelming majority of 164 countries with the United States casting the sole vote against and six countries abstaining.Ahead of the vote, the United States dismissed the resolution as an “anodyne effort to update cartographic proportions” that “cannot be separated from the much larger and more radical ideological project it belongs to”, which was likely a reference to the EU’s historic reparations agenda. It was introduced on behalf of the Group of African States by Togo’s foreign minister Robert Dussey, who argued that commonly used projections such as the Mercator make equatorial regions, particularly Africa, appear smaller relative to landmasses at higher latitudes.The Mercator projection was developed in the 16th century primarily for navigation. Equal-area projections, by contrast, preserve the relative size of landmasses when representing the three-dimensional surface of the Earth on a two-dimensional map.The resolution identifies the Equal Earth projection as a relevant option and encourages its adoption, dissemination and use, while also acknowledging that no single projection can perfectly represent the curved surface of the Earth on a plane.Dussey sought to draw a clear distinction between the cartographic objective of the resolution and political maps.“This draft resolution does not affect the current state of borders,” he said. “This draft resolution does not condemn any projection, not even the Mercator projection.”He also said the text “does not impose any single projection for all users”, adding that the reference to Equal Earth concerned “exclusively the proportional representation of continental land areas”.“It does not in any way concern the delimitation, delineation, status or recognition of borders, nor should it be interpreted as expressing any political, legal or territorial position whatsoever,” Dussey said.That distinction became important because the UN itself produces official maps showing the international setting of states and territories, while its Geospatial Information Section provides cartographic support for internal operations and has a specific role in the representation and analysis of international boundaries.As a result, support for the resolution for a new map projection could become legally consequential, particularly for countries with unresolved or disputed territorial claims. Pakistan, which disputes India’s claim over Kashmir, also made a similar qualification about the resolution, stating that it supported the basic premise of the initiative for “an accurate description of the continental land masses only, and not countries’ political maps and boundaries”.The issue is particularly relevant for the Indian subcontinent because UN cartographic representations of Jammu and Kashmir differ from the maps officially used by New Delhi.UN maps show the Line of Control as a separate, dotted line and carry a disclaimer that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir has not been agreed upon by India and Pakistan, while India’s official maps depict Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh within India’s external boundaries. India has also prescribed penalties for publishing maps that do not conform to the official Survey of India depiction of the country’s boundaries.However, neither Pakistan nor India named Kashmir directly, though Pakistan’s statement pointed at it, saying the resolution did not alter the legal status of “the disputed territories recognised as such by the resolution of the United Nations Security Council.”The question of how Equal Earth maps depict disputed territory was more explicit in the interventions by Ukraine and the United Kingdom, which focused on Crimea and Russia’s attempted annexation of Ukrainian territory.Ukraine told the Assembly it had spent the two days before the vote trying to negotiate a compromise on the specific operative paragraph naming the Equal Earth projection, and that when those efforts “bore no fruit”, it would abstain. Its representative said the maps associated with the projection depicted Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia “in a manner that is wholly unacceptable,” and warned that adopting the resolution with that reference intact risked opening “a Pandora’s box” that could be used to relitigate settled political boundaries elsewhere.The United Kingdom similarly raised concerns about depictions of territorial boundaries and specifically the status of Crimea. “Crimea is Ukraine. Russia invaded Crimea by force, and its attempted annexation is illegal, null and void,” the UK said, adding that it would never recognise Russia’s claim to Crimea or any other Ukrainian territory.Australia, Canada and New Zealand also stressed the implications of maps for existing territorial disputes. The three countries said the resolution and materials associated with Equal Earth could not affect “matters of sovereignty, sovereign rights, territorial integrity, national borders or jurisdiction”, and that nothing associated with the resolution should be used “as a basis to assert, deny, endorse or validate any claims to such rights”.The concern over political maps also extended to the Balkans. Serbia, which abstained, said its concerns related specifically to references to Equal Earth because available sources and presentations associated with the projection contained political maps that it said were not in conformity with international law, relevant UN resolutions, principles, standards and guidelines. Serbia’s position on territorial representation is particularly sensitive in the context of Kosovo, whose declaration of independence Serbia does not recognise and whose status remains contested at the UN.Speaking on behalf of the European Union, Ireland’s representative said that bloc understood the resolution “neither addresses nor affects questions relating to sovereignty, territorial status, delimitation, or the internationally recognised borders of States” anywhere in the world. Nor did it endorse “any specific website, such as equal-earth.com, including the maps contained therein.”Cyprus, whose own territorial dispute with Turkey has left the island divided and whose northern part is recognised internationally only by Ankara, also stressed the limits of the resolution.It said the resolution was “strictly limited to the technical, educational, and scientific aspects of cartographic projection” and neither addressed nor affected questions of sovereignty, territorial integrity or internationally recognised borders.The Philippines made much the same point, sharpened by its own long-running maritime disputes in the South China Sea. Its representative noted that the Equal Earth website itself carries “disclaimers on the contents of maps uploaded on the website, which may be geopolitically contentious,” and said the country’s vote was “without prejudice to questions related to sovereignty, sovereign rights or jurisdiction, territorial or maritime boundaries, or the legal status of any territory or maritime area.”Russia, which voted in favour, linked the cartographic issue to the historical legacy of colonialism, saying the disproportionate image of Africa had come to be viewed as part of a system of ideas in which the continent’s place and significance were diminished. The Kremlin has sought to expand its influence across the continent through high-level diplomacy, military and security partnerships, arms sales and, in parts of the Sahel and Central Africa, the deployment of Wagner personnel and the state-controlled Africa Corps.It has also built ties with Togo specifically, the resolution’s own sponsor, with Russia’s parliament ratifying a military cooperation agreement with Lomé in October 2025.