India slams China’s renaming of areas in disputed region

New Delhi, Apr 4 (EFE).- India on Tuesday slammed what it described as China’s “attempts to assign invented names” to several places in Arunachal Pradesh, which is controlled by New Delhi and claimed by Beijing.

India’s foreign ministry announced its rejection of the list of “standardized” names of 11 places in the disputed region, reported by state-run Chinese newspaper Global Times on Monday.

“We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a statement.

“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,” he added.

India and China have a historic dispute over several Himalayan regions, with Beijing claiming Arunachal Pradesh, controlled by New Delhi, which in turn claims the Aksai Chin, administered by the Communist state.

In 2017, Beijing had renamed several places in Arunachal Pradesh, days after a visit by the Dalai Lama to the region in which the Nobel Peace Prize laureate criticized Chinese politicians.

Four years later, it issued another set of standardized names.

Bilateral relations between India and China have been seriously affected since a border clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 in the western Himalayas.

It marked the worst clash in 45 years between the nuclear powers, in which at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed and 76 wounded, while Beijing said four of its troops were dead and one seriously wounded.

Both powers reacted to the conflict by sending troops to the LAC, the disputed de facto border that divides both countries, before beginning to withdraw them amid accusations of new military actions and violations in the territory.

Since then, New Delhi and Beijing have tried to resolve the crisis through diplomatic channels. EFE

daa/pd