New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday firmly rejected attempts by China to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh and asserted that assigning "invented names" will not alter the reality that the state "is, has been, and will always be" an integral and inalienable part of India.
The statement was issued by the MEA in response to media queries in the wake of China releasing a fourth list of 30 new names of various places in Arunachal Pradesh amid Beijing's stepped-up assertions in recent weeks to re-emphasise its claim over the Indian state. "China has persisted with its senseless attempts to rename places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. We firmly reject such attempts. 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," MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was quoted as saying in the statement.
On March 28, India said that Beijing may "repeat its baseless claims" as many times as it wants but that is not going to change New Delhi's position that Arunachal Pradesh "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 Pradesh. His comments at the briefing had come days after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian had reiterated China's claim.
The latest list released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs comprises new names for 30 places and sites in Arunachal Pradesh. As many as 11 residential areas, 12 mountains, four rivers, one lake, one mountain pass and a piece of land were named by China much to the chagrin of India.
China used Chinese characters, Tibetan, and Pinyin, the Roman alphabet version of Mandarin Chinese, to give credence to its claim, which is fiercely contested by Indian authorities. China first released a list of new names for six places in Arunachal Pradesh in 2017. This was followed by a second list of 15 places in 2021, and then a third list of names for 11 places in 2023. China refers to Arunachal Pradesh as 'Zangnan' or south Tibet, a territory Beijing claims to be a part of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In Mandarin Chinese, Zang refers to Tibet and 'nan' means south.
