Extenal Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar. FILE/AP
New Delhi: “Reject this outright,” said India as it strongly rejected China renaming 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as South Tibet. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stressed that “Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and always be an integral and inalienable part of India.”
“Attempts to assign invented names (by China) will not alter this reality,” the MEA spokesperson added.
The renaming in the past too was promptly rejected by India, with New Delhi saying that Arunachal will always remain an integral and “inseparable” part of India.
China has on Sunday (2 March) for the third time made an attempt to lay claim to areas inside the Indian territory by renaming 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh which it calls “Zangan, the southern part of Tibet”.
The names were released in Chinese, Tibetan and pinyin characters, in accordance with regulations on geographical names issued by State Council, China’s cabinet, said a report by Chinese state mouthpiece Global Times.
The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs said they are “standardising some geographical names in southern Tibet”.
The ministry gave precise coordinates, including two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks and two rivers. It also listed the category of places’ names and their subordinate administrative districts.
China also released a map that showed parts of Arunachal Pradesh inside the southern Tibetan region which even includes a town situated close to the state capital of Itanagar.
However, this is not the first time China renamed places terming them standardised geographical names. In 2017, days after Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama left Arunachal Pradesh following a high-profile nine-day visit, China carried out first batch of name changes of six places.
The second batch was in 2021 when China renamed 15 locations in Arunachal Pradesh. It happened ahead of a new border security law that was to come in effect in January 2021. Dismissing China’s move, India said such actions wouldn’t alter the region’s status as an integral part of the country.
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