New Delhi, Aug 11: India on Tuesday rejected China’s objection to its decision to formally identify 27 places and geographical features in Arunachal Pradesh by their standard Indian names on official maps, reiterating that the northeastern state is an integral part of the country.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India’s position on Arunachal Pradesh remains unchanged and asserted that no attempt to alter place names can change the state’s status.
India last week formally incorporated 27 locations and features into the official Survey of India map of Arunachal Pradesh. The government said the move was aimed at ensuring accurate recognition of the locations and improving public awareness.
The development comes amid continued tensions over China’s claims on Arunachal Pradesh. Beijing refers to the region as “Zangnan” and has periodically announced Chinese names for places in the state since 2017.
China on Monday objected to India’s latest move, calling the naming exercise invalid and reiterating its territorial claims over the region.
New Delhi has consistently rejected China’s attempts to rename locations in Arunachal Pradesh, maintaining that such actions cannot alter India’s territorial position.
Among the 27 locations formally identified by India is Long Ju, situated along the Line of Actual Control and associated with an early India-China border confrontation in 1959. Several other locations are also strategically and historically significant.
India has maintained that Arunachal Pradesh is an inseparable part of its territory and has described Chinese efforts to assign alternative names to places in the state as attempts to create misleading narratives.
The latest exchange comes at a time when India and China are seeking to stabilise bilateral ties while the boundary dispute remains unresolved. Delhi has also stressed that peace and tranquillity along the border are essential for improving broader relations between the two countries.
