Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar stressed that “Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always be” a part of India, after China renamed 30 places in the State, which it claims as ‘Zangnan’ or south Tibet.
Comments from Jaishankar
“If today, I change the name of your house, will it become mine? Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be a state of India. Changing names does not have an effect,” he said.
“Our army is deployed at the Line of Actual Control...,” the EAM added.
Jaishankar made the comments while speaking at the Corporate Summit 2024, presented by the Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on Monday.
China Renames Areas in Arunachal
The remark from the Indian EAM came after China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs published the fourth list of standardised geographical names in the Indian state, which it recognises as “Zangnan,” the southern part of Southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region.
This latest release includes 30 additional publicly used place names in the Zangnan region. Scheduled to be enforced starting 1 May 2024, the implementation measures state that “foreign language place names that could undermine China’s territorial claims and sovereignty rights are prohibited from being directly quoted or translated without authorisation.”
#WATCH | Surat, Gujarat: On China's claim regarding Arunachal Pradesh, EAM Dr S Jaishankar says, "If today I change the name of your house, will it become mine? Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be a state of India. Changing names does not have an effect...Our army is… pic.twitter.com/EaN66BfNFj
— ANI (@ANI) April 1, 2024
This is not the first time that China has attempted to rename Indian territories. Last April, the ministry standardised the names of 11 places, using Chinese characters, Tibetan, and pinyin.
“We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright. Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the time.
Recent Spats
In his first public remarks addressing China’s recurrent assertions regarding Arunachal Pradesh and its objection to Indian leaders’ visits to the region, Jaishankar last week rejected the assertions as “ludicrous.” He firmly emphasised that the northeastern state is an “integral component of India’s territory.”
Earlier in March, Indian PM Narendra Modi visited the Sela Tunnel, which will provide all-weather connectivity to the strategically important Tawang region across Sela Pass on the Balipara-Chariduar-Tawang Road in Arunachal Pradesh. It is also expected to enhance troop movement in the frontier region.
Subsequently, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told the media that China “strongly deplores and firmly opposes the Indian leader’s visit to the East Section of the China-India boundary” and has “made solemn representations to India” regarding the same. Wang reiterated that China has “never recognised” Arunachal Pradesh, which was “illegally set up by India,” and that Beijing “firmly opposes it.”
India’s Ministry of External Affairs responded that such comments from Beijing “will not change the reality that the State of Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.”