China considers Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet. (file)
New Delhi:
India on Thursday strongly rejected China’s renaming of some places in Arunachal Pradesh, saying the state “has always been” and “always will” and assigning a “invented” name does not change that fact. .
India’s response came in response to Beijing’s announcement of Chinese names for 15 more places in Arunachal Pradesh, which the neighboring country claims as South Tibet.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said, “We have seen this. This is not the first time that China has attempted to change the names of places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. China had sought such names in April 2017 as well.” “
He said, “Arunachal Pradesh has always been and will be an integral part of India. Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not change this fact.”
Mr Bagchi was responding to a media query on reports that China has changed the names of some places in Arunachal Pradesh to its own language.
China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announced on Wednesday that it has standardized the names of 15 place in Zangnan, the Chinese name of Arunachal Pradesh, in Chinese characters, Tibetan and Roman alphabets, according to the official Global Times.
This is in accordance with the regulations on geographical names issued by the State Council, China’s cabinet, it said in a report.
The report said that among the official names of 15 places, which were given exact longitude and latitude, eight are residential places, four are mountains, two are rivers and one is a mountain pass.
This is the second batch of standardized names of places in Arunachal Pradesh given by China.
The first batch of standardized names of six places was released in 2017.
China considers Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet.
The second batch has eight residential locations, Sengkezong and Daglungzong in Kona County of Shannan Prefecture, Manigang, Duding and Migpen in Medog County of Nyingchi, Goling, Damba in Nyingchi’s Zhayu County, and Mejag in Lunzhe County of Shannan Prefecture, Global Times reports. stated in.
The four mountains are Wamo Ri, Dau Ri, Lhunjub Ri and Kunmingxingzi Fang, it said.
The two rivers are the Xenogmo Hey and the Dulen Hey, and the mountain pass in Kona County is named the La.
The report quotes Lian Jiangmin as an expert at the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing and claims that the announcement is part of a national survey on place names that have existed for hundreds of years.
The renaming of places in Arunachal Pradesh by China comes in the midst of the eastern Ladakh border standoff that began in May last year.
After the standoff, India strengthened its overall military preparedness along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Arunachal Pradesh sector as well.
Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Manoj Pandey said in October that China has increased the intensity of its military exercises and deployment of troops in its deep areas opposite the LAC in the Arunachal Pradesh sector.
He said that India has prepared a contingency plan to deal with any situation.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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