NEW DELHI, 2 Apr: India on Tuesday outrightly rejected as “senseless” China renaming some places in Arunachal Pradesh, and asserted that assigning “invented” names does not alter the reality that the state “is, has been, and will always be” an integral part of India.
India’s reaction came in response to Beijing announcing Chinese names for 30 more places in Arunachal which the neighbouring country claims as southern part of Tibet.
“China has persisted with its senseless attempts to rename places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. We firmly reject such attempts,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
“Assigning invented names will not alter the reality that Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India,” he said in response to media queries on the matter.
The Chinese civil affairs ministry released the fourth list of standardised geographical names in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal which Beijing claims as part of south Tibet, state-run Global Times reported on Sunday.
In April last year too, India had reacted sharply when Beijing had released the third list of standardised names of 11 places in Arunachal.
The first batch of the standardised names of six places in Arunachal was released in 2017, while the second batch of 15 places was issued in 2021.
On 28 March, India had said that Beijing may “repeat its baseless claims” over Arunachal as many times as it wants but that is not going to change New Delhi’s position that the state “was, is and will always remain” an integral and inalienable part of the country.
Jaiswal had said this during his weekly press briefing, in response to a query on China continuing to harp on its claim over Arunachal.
The ties between India and China came under severe strain following the eastern Ladakh border row that began in May, 2020.
Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh, even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.
India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the LAC are key for normalisation of overall ties. (PTI)
