NEW DELHI, Aug. 11: India on Tuesday rejected China’s attempts to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh, with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) asserting that the state remains an “inalienable and integral part of India”.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal made the remarks amid Beijing’s continuing efforts to assign Chinese names to locations in Arunachal Pradesh, which China refers to as “Zangnan”.
“Arunachal Pradesh is an inalienable and integral part of India and this is a fact that is self-evident,” Jaiswal said during a media briefing. He added that “nothing can change this indisputable reality”.
The statement came after India officially identified 27 locations in Arunachal Pradesh using their standard names on the Survey of India map. The move seeks to ensure consistent geographical identification while highlighting the historical and strategic significance of the locations.
Several places on the list have links to India-China military history. Long Ju was the site of an armed confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops in 1959, while Thag La was among the areas where fighting began during the 1962 India-China war.
The list also includes Jairampur, an important logistical centre in eastern Arunachal Pradesh, along with Jaswant Garh and the Sher-e-Thapa Memorial, which commemorate Indian soldiers who fought during the 1962 war.
India has repeatedly rejected China’s attempts to rename locations in Arunachal Pradesh, maintaining that such actions cannot alter their status. New Delhi has described Beijing’s naming exercises as “vain and preposterous”.
China first released a list of six purportedly “standardised” names for places in Arunachal Pradesh in 2017, followed by 15 names in 2021 and another 11 in 2023.
New Delhi has dismissed the names as fictitious and maintained that unilateral attempts to rename locations cannot alter India’s position that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of the country.
