Arunachal India's Integral Part, Assigning "Invented" Names Does Not Alter This Fact: MEA On China Renaming Some Places In Indian State

The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday (30 December) said that China assigning "invented" names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not alter the face that the state is an integral part of India.

In response to a media query on reports that China has renamed some places in Arunachal Pradesh in its own language, the Official Spokesperson Shri Arindam Bagchi said, "We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has attempted such a renaming of places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh".

"China had also sought to assign such names in April 2017," he added.

"Arunachal Pradesh has always been, and will always be an integral part of India. Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not alter this fact," the MEA spokesperson said.

India's terse response comes after China's Ministry of Civil Affairs announced on 29 December that it had standardised in Chinese characters, Tibetan and Roman alphabet the names of 15 places in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh, reported state-run Global Times.

As per the reports, this is in accordance with regulations on geographical names issued by the State Council, China’s cabinet. It was also reported that 8 of the 15 official names with longitude and latitude are residential areas, 4 are mountains, 2 are rivers, and 1 is a mountain pass. This is China's second batch of standardised names for localities in Arunachal, following six others in 2017.

China claims Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet which is firmly rejected by the External Affairs Ministry which says the state is an “inseparable part of India'.

(With inputs from PTI)