The Saudi banknote has omitted J&K and Ladakh from the Indian territory

India has lodged a protest over the distortion of the Indian map by Saudi Arabia, which excluded the undivided Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh from India in its global map imprinted on the 20 Riyal banknote

The banknote was released to mark the kingdom's presidency of the G20 summit. The new banknote features King Salman and the G20 Saudi summit logo on one side, with a world map highlighting G20 countries in a darker shade on the other.

The map shows the whole of Jammu and Kashmir, including Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK) as a separate territory altogether. It does not even show PoK which includes Gilgit-Baltistan as part of Pakistani territory.

PoK activist Amjad Ayub Mirza has hailed it as a huge snub to Pakistan and tweeted, "Saudi Arab removes Pakistan occupied Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan from Pakistan's map!!!!"

Sources told India Today TV that when New Delhi checked the map, it was found that the distortion was in the Indian map as well. India has taken up this serious matter with the Saudi Arabian embassy in New Delhi and the foreign ministry in Riyadh through the Indian mission.

Since the matter was taken up only on Wednesday, the Indian side is waiting to hear from Riyadh, a source said.

While India is a member of the G20, Pakistan is not. The G20 summit will take place on November 21-22, 2020 in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia will have to make changes to the banknote else it would be untenable for India to participate.

India and Saudi Arabia’s ties have grown exponentially in recent times. In October 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid an official visit to Riyadh during which the Strategic Partnership Council Agreement was signed, identifying India as one of the kingdom's strategic partner countries under 'Vision 2030' with a high-level partnership council at the leadership level.

The members of the G20 are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union.