The US has criticised China’s move to release a list of 30 new names for places in Arunachal Pradesh and described it as a “unilateral attempt” to reassert its territorial claims, the South China Morning Post reported.
“The United States strongly opposes any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions or encroachments, military or civilian, across the Line of Actual Control,” the newspaper quoted a US state department representative as saying.
The Indian government has already rejected the Chinese move as “senseless” and said that changing names would not alter the reality of the state.
“China has persisted with its senseless attempts to rename places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. We firmly reject such attempts,” the ministry of external affairs said.
The 30 places renamed include 12 mountains, four rivers, one mountain pass, some residential areas and land. Apart from the names, China shared the detailed latitude and longitude and a high-resolution map of the areas.
External affairs minister S 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. Our army is deployed at the Line of Actual Control…..”
Recently, China had raised objections on Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh saying that it would “only complicate” the boundary issue.
“China never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh illegally set up by India and firmly opposes it,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin had said back then at a media briefing.
On March 9, PM Modi inaugurated the Sela tunnel, the world’s longest bi-lane tunnel, which connects Tezpur in Assam to Tawang in Arunachal. Built at a cost of Rs 825 crore, the tunnel has been built at an altitude of 13,000 feet and facilitate all-weather movement.
