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05-04-2023
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI/ BEIJING: India has reacted sharply to China’s attempts to rename places in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh and said it “outright rejects” the move.
The state has been and will always be an “integral and inalienable part of India,” foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Tuesday.
His comments came after reports said that China had renamed 11 places along a disputed Himalayan border region in the state.
China and India share a disputed 3,440km (2,100 mile) long de facto border called the Line of Actual Control, or LAC which is poorly demarcated. The presence of rivers, lakes and snowcaps means the line can shift.
China continues to stake claim on the whole of Arunachal Pradesh, calling it “South Tibet”. The soldiers on either side representing two of the world’s largest armies come face to face at many points, the last time being in December when Indian and Chinese troops clashed along the border in the town of Tawang.
This is also not the first time that Beijing has renamed places in the state, triggering angry reactions from India.
The latest tensions began after the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs on 1 April announced that it had “standardized some geographical names in southern Tibet”.
This included mountain peaks, residential areas, rivers and a town close to the state’s capital Itanagar.
India said Beijing could not alter the status of places in the north-eastern state.
“This is not first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright,” Bagchi said in a statement.
“Arunachal Pradesh is an integral, inalienable part of India and attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality,” he added.
Beijing first sought to rename six districts in Arunachal Pradesh in 2017 in a move that was seen as “retaliation” for a visit by the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan spiritual leader had visited the region earlier that year in April.
It released a second list in December last year, this time renaming 15 places in the region. India reacted strongly and said it rejected the changes.
In December last year, the India said its forces have clashed with Chinese troops in a disputed area along the border, the first such flare-up in more than a year.
The nations had been working to de-escalate tensions since a major clash killed at least 24 troops in 2020 but on Monday, the Indian army said there had been a clash in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh state last Friday, the eastern tip of India.
Both sides were involved with a few soldiers suffering minor injuries.
Media reported an Indian army source saying at least six Indian troops were injured.
“Both sides immediately disengaged from the area,” the Indian army said.
It added that commanders from both sides had held a meeting immediately after “to restore peace and tranquility”.
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who addressed lawmakers in Parliament on Tuesday, said the encounter started when Chinese troops “encroached into Indian territory” and “unilaterally tried to change the status quo” along the disputed border near the Yangtse area.
He said the Indian solders responded with firmness and prevented the Chinese army from “transgressing into our territory”, and forced them to return to their posts.
Singh said that some soldiers from both sides had been injured in the skirmish but no Indian soldiers had been “hurt or seriously injured” in the clash.
He said that local military commanders met on Sunday to discuss the dispute, adding that the incident has been taken up with the Chinese side “through diplomatic channels”.
