A Buddha statue is pictured in Tawang in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh in 2017. © Reuters
NEW DELHI — India on Wednesday rejected China’s “vain and preposterous attempts” to rename places in northeastern Arunachal Pradesh state, calling the Indian region bordering the communist nation its “integral and inalienable.”
The statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs follows Beijing’s latest move as part of its repeated practice to announce its own names for places in the state, which China claims as its own territory and refers to it as Zangnan, or South Tibet. Beijing also often takes exception to visits to Arunachal Pradesh by Indian leaders and opposes infrastructure development projects in the region.
“We have noticed that China has persisted with its vain and preposterous attempts to name places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh,” Randhir Jaiswal, the ministry’s spokesperson, said in a brief statement in response to media queries without identifying the locations.
“Consistent with our principled position, we reject such attempts categorically,” he said. “Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.”
The South China Morning Post reported Wednesday that the latest names for places in Arunachal Pradesh were published by the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs. “The renaming of 27 places covered a diverse array of geographical features: 15 mountains, five residential areas, four mountain passes, two rivers and one lake,” it added.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters on Wednesday, “Zangnan is part of China’s territory” in response to a question about the Indian statement rejecting China’s renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh.
“The Chinese government has standardized the names of some parts of Zangnan. This is within China’s sovereign rights,” he said, repeating the Chinese claim.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year in March visited Arunachal Pradesh for the inauguration of an ambitious tunnel built at an altitude of nearly 4,000 meters with the aim of providing “all-weather” connectivity to the strategic Tawang region of the state, drawing criticism from China.
The latest naming episode by China comes despite the two countries working to improve strained ties following a deadly clash between their troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in 2020, in which 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed. In October last year, India and China reached a key agreement on patrolling arrangements along their disputed Himalayan frontier in an effort to resolve their four-year standoff.
The fresh development also follows India and Pakistan — a key Chinese ally — announcing a ceasefire on Saturday following days of heightened tensions in the wake of a deadly attack on civilians in India’s Jammu and Kashmir region on April 22. China’s state-run media reported Wednesday that the country’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sun Weidong on Tuesday met Pakistani Ambassador to China Khalil Hashmi, during which India-Pakistan tensions figured in their talks.
Citing a release issued by China’s foreign ministry, the Global Times reported that Sun said during the meeting that “China welcomes and supports a full and lasting ceasefire between Pakistan and India” and is “willing to continue to play a constructive role in this regard.”
The article appeared in the asia.nikkei