China issued a statement on Saturday changing the names of 30 places in Arunachal Pradesh on the India-China border. India on Tuesday rejected the name change as “meaningless.” Arunachal Pradesh, located in the Himalayan region, is an “integral part” of India, the country said. And China considers Arunachal Pradesh to be part of southern Tibet, which it calls Zhangnan.Responding to the Chinese initiative to change the names of 30 places in Arunachal, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Tuesday, “Invented names cannot change the fact that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will remain an integral part of India.”
Earlier on Monday, India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar told reporters, “There is nothing wrong with changing the name. If I change the name of your house, does it become my house?”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh last month to inaugurate several infrastructure projects. China then opposed Modi’s visit to the region. India, however, called the statement “baseless.”.
The United States has expressed its opinion on this matter and said that it considers Arunachal Pradesh a territory of India. Apart from this, the United States also “strongly opposes” any unilateral attempt to claim rights over the region by military or civilian “intrusion or occupation.”.
However, China has said that the US has nothing to do with this issue.
India and China have about 3,800 kilometers of border, much of which is not well marked.
There was a war between the two countries in 1962 over this border. Apart from this, in December 2022, there was a conflict between the forces of the two countries. Twenty Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in this. Later, after several rounds of negotiations at the military and diplomatic levels, the situation cooled down. Both sides have taken initiatives to secure the border area more.
