ISTANBUL

Pakistan on Thursday said Wakhan Corridor was Afghan territory, ending any speculation regarding the sovereignty of the mountain pass, connecting the landlocked nation to China through Xinjiang.

“I have seen this endless speculation. Wakhan is part of Afghan territory. Afghanistan is a neighboring country. We recognize its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan told reporters in Islamabad.

The corridor is a narrow strip of territory in the northeastern Badakhshan province of Afghanistan, separating Tajikistan from Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region.

“There is no question of Pakistan having designs on one of its neighbors. I deem it speculative and totally erroneous actually,” said Khan, categorically rejecting any reports of annexation of the corridor.

Islamabad is in touch with Kabul on the matter "through an ongoing multilayered engagement," Associated Press of Pakistan reported, citing Khan.

The clarification comes after Kabul last month dismissed reports of any Pakistani forces in the Wakhan district of the province.

Kabul's dismissal had come on a day when Chinese Ambassador to Kabul Zhao Xing met with acting Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and discussed bilateral issues, including the Wakhan Corridor.

The two sides had discussed the Wakhan Corridor's strategic importance, improving trade relations, and expanding passenger flight operations.

Foreign ministers of China and Afghanistan had last October discussed the opening of the strategic corridor to enhance trade ties between Beijing and Kabul.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi had discussed the issue in Tibet on the sidelines of the 3rd Trans-Himalaya Forum for International Cooperation in October.