NEW DELHI: India on Thursday reemphasized that changing names of the places in Arunachal Pradesh will not change the fact that Arunachal Pradesh is and will always be an integral part of India.
Arindham Bagchi, the Official Spokesperson Ministry of External Affairs said, “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." He was responding to a media query on the reports that China has renamed some places in Arunachal Pradesh in its own language.
"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.” Bagchi added.
It was on Wednesday, two days ahead of China implementing new border law, the Chinese government renamed 15 places of Arunachal Pradesh on its map. China calls Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet and lays its claim over this 90,000 sq km area.
China's Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a statement stating that they have 'standardised' names for 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh, to be used on Chinese maps. They announced Chinese characters, Tibetan and Roman alphabet names for places in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh, state-run Global Times reported on Thursday.
This is the second time China has renamed the names of the places of Arunachal Pradesh. Way back in 2017, China had changed the names of six places.
The renaming of names comes just two days ahead of implementing new border law which was passed on October 23, by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body. The new law was passed citing "protection and exploitation of the country's land border areas". The committee had stated that the new law will come into effect from January 1.
The law is not meant specifically for the border with India. China shares its 22,457 km land boundary with 14 countries including India.
As per the law, the People's Republic of China shall set up boundary markers on all its land borders to clearly mark the border. The type of marker is to be decided in agreement with the relevant neighbouring state.
The law further stated that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and Chinese People's Armed Police Force will maintain security along the border.
India claims that China is illegally occupying about 38,000 sq km of India's territory in Aksai Chin, which borders eastern Ladakh. Pakistan ceded to China about 5,180 sq km in 1963 from the Indian territory illegally occupied by it.
India and China are engaged in a tense standoff since May 2020 and diplomatic and military talks are on to resolve the issues.