Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be a part of India, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on April 1 in response to China renaming yet another 30 places in the State, which it claims as ‘south Tibet’. The development follows closely after the recent visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the State for the inauguration of the Sela tunnel, built at an altitude of 13,000 ft.
“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,” Dr. Jaishankar said, responding to questions at a press conference. He also said that the Indian Army was deployed in Arunachal Pradesh.
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China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs made an announcement on March 30, which said it had “standardized” the names of 30 places in “southern Tibet”. The first such “standardised” list of six places was released in 2017, followed by a second list of 15 places in 2021, and a third list of 11 places in 2023.
In the past too, the Ministry of External Affairs had rejected the renaming. “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,” the MEA’s spokesperson said in April 2023.
Following Mr. Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh March 9, China issued statements asserting its claims over the area and even lodged a diplomatic protest with India.
Responding to questions on March 23, after delivering a lecture at the Institute of South Asian Studies, the National University of Singapore, Dr. Jaishankar termed China’s repeated claims as “ludicrous”, and said that Arunachal Pradesh was a “natural part of India”.
“This is not a new issue. I mean, China has laid claim, it has expanded its claim. The claims are ludicrous to begin with and remain ludicrous today,” he had said. “So, I think we’ve been very clear, very consistent on this. And I think you know that is something which will be part of the boundary discussions which are taking place.”
There was also friction over a statement by the U.S. recognising Arunachal Pradesh as part of India. “The U.S. recognises Arunachal Pradesh as Indian territory, and we strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions or encroachments, military or civilian, across the Line of Actual Control,” the U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel had said on March 9.
China had reacted sharply to state that the China-India boundary issue was a matter between the two countries, and that Washington had nothing to do with it.
