India on Tuesday rejected China’s ”senseless attempts” to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh.
“China has persisted with its senseless attempts to rename places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. We firmly reject such attempts. Assigning invented names will not alter the reality that Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
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This came a day after China released a fourth list of 30 new names for various places in Arunachal Pradesh. Set to take effect from May 1, the implementation measures stipulate in Article 13 that “place names in foreign languages that may harm China’s territorial claims and sovereignty rights shall not be directly quoted or translated without authorisation,” Chinese state-run media reported.
On Monday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar rejected China’s renaming of places in Arunachal Pradesh, saying it was, is, and will always remain an integral part of India. ”If I change the name of your house, will it become mine?” he asked when a journalist in Surat sought his reaction to China’s latest action.
China recently objected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh on March 9 during which he dedicated to the nation the strategic Sela Tunnel built at an altitude of 13,000 feet.