Jaishankar reacts to China changing names of places in Arunachal Pradesh

External Affairs Minister Jaishankar said that Arunachal Pradesh is and will remain an integral part of India as he brushed aside China's name-changing exercise.

Addressing a press conference in Gujarat, Jaishankar said,"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 also said that the Indian Army is deployed at the Line of Actual Control."

Earlier in the day, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs released the fourth list of standardised geographical names in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh which Beijing claims as part of south Tibet, state-run Global Times reported on Sunday.

The official website of the ministry posted 30 additional names for the region.

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," the report said.

The Chinese Civil Affairs Ministry released the first list of the standardised names of six places in Zangnan was released in 2017, while the second list of 15 places was issued in 2021 followed by another list with names for 11 places in 2023.

The recent statements by China to reassert its claims over the state started with Beijing lodging a diplomatic protest with India over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, where he dedicated to the nation the Sela Tunnel built at an altitude of 13,000 feet in Arunachal Pradesh.

The tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity to strategically located Tawang and is expected to ensure better movement of troops along the frontier region.

Chinese Foreign and Defence ministries have issued a flurry of statements to highlight China's claims over the area.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on March 23 dismissed China's repeated claims on Arunachal Pradesh as "ludicrous" and that the frontier state was a "natural part of India".

Also read | China reasserts claim over Arunachal Pradesh, names 30 places