New Delhi, Dec 30 (UNI) India on Thursday hit out at China for attempting to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh, stating that the northeastern state has always been, and will always be an integral part of India, and “assigning invented names” by Beijing will not alter the fact.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, in a statement, said that this is not the first time that Beijing has attempted to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh.
In response to a media query on reports that China has renamed some places in Arunachal Pradesh in its own language, the Official Spokesperson 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.
“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 response came as China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announced on Wednesday that it had standardised in Chinese characters, Tibetan and Roman alphabets the names of 15 places in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as South Tibet.
Among the official names of the 15 places, eight are residential places, four are mountains, two are rivers and one is a mountain pass, a report in the state-run Global Times said.
This is the second batch of such names of places in Arunachal Pradesh given by China.
The first batch of the standardised names of six places was released in 2017.
The latest Chinese attempt at renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh comes even as relations between India and China are at a low over the border dispute in eastern Ladakh.
UNI/RN