India has told China once again that assigning "invented names" to some places in Arunachal Pradesh will not change the reality.
China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, in an announcement on Wednesday, had made official 15 publicly-used place names in southern Tibet – or Zangnan as the Chinese call Arunachal Pradesh – giving geographical coordinates of the locations in India's state.
"In accordance with the relevant regulations of the State Council on the management of geographical names, our ministry and relevant departments have standardized some geographical names in southern Tibet. The second batch of publicly-used place names in southern Tibet (15 in total) is now officially announced," said the Chinese ministry.
Slamming Beijing's move, New Delhi said that it is not for the first time that China has attempted such a renaming of places in Arunachal Pradesh, having also assigned 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," said Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
India has time and again criticised Beijing's repeated interference in the affairs of north-eastern states, especially Arunachal Pradesh.
Earlier in October, India had reacted strongly to the comments made by the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu's visit to the state.
Replying to a question put by a local TV channel, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian had said that Beijing "firmly opposes the Indian leader's visit" to an area which it has "never recognized".
The MEA had said that objecting to the visit of Indian leaders to a state of India does not stand to reason and understanding of Indian people.
"We have noted the comments made today by the Chinese official spokesperson. We reject such comments. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of India. Indian leaders routinely travel to the state of Arunachal Pradesh as they do to any other state of India," the MEA had said.
India had also made it clear that the current situation along the LAC in the Western Sector of the India-China border areas has been caused by unilateral attempts of the Chinese side to alter the status quo in violation of the bilateral agreements.
"We expect the Chinese side to work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols rather than trying to link unrelated issues," the MEA had reminded Beijing.
