New Delhi: India on Tuesday rejected Chinese attempts to rename some places in Arunachal Pradesh saying that such attempts to assign "invented names" will not alter the reality that Arunachal Pradesh has always been an "integral" and "inalienable" part of India.
Responding to media queries, External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright. Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality.”
China has released a third set of names in Chinese and Tibetan characters for Arunachal Pradesh. This is part of its attempt to reemphasise its claim over the Indian state. China's Ministry of Civil Affairs on Sunday released the standardised names of 11 places for Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls "Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet" in accordance with regulations on geographical names issued by the State Council, China's cabinet.
The official names of the 11 places were released on Sunday by the ministry, which also gave precise coordinates, including two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks and two rivers and listed the category of places' names and their subordinate administrative districts, state-run Global Times reported on Monday.
This is the third batch of standardised geographical names for Arunachal Pradesh issued by China's civil affairs ministry. The first batch of the standardised names of six places in Arunachal was released in 2017, and the second batch of 15 places was issued in 2021. India has previously dismissed the Chinese move of renaming some places in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state has "always been" and will "always be" an integral part of India and that assigning "invented" names does not alter this fact.
