'Vain and preposterous attempts': India on China's renaming of Arunachal Pradesh places

In a statement, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, "We have noticed that China has persisted with its vain and preposterous attempts to name places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

"Consistent with our principled position, we reject such attempts categorically. Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India."

China, which claims Arunachal Pradesh as a part of its territory, has released new Chinese names for some places of the northeastern state.

China has been renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh as part of its ongoing territorial claims over the region, which it refers to as 'Zangnan' or 'South Tibet'.

This action is widely seen as a political move aimed at asserting sovereignty over the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh is located in northeastern India and shares a long border with China.

China disputes India's sovereignty over the region and claims it as part of its Tibet Autonomous Region.

Over the past several years, China has released multiple lists of renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh, including names for towns, villages, mountains, and rivers, written in Chinese, Tibetan, and Pinyin.

Last year, India and China had reached a consensus and agreed to disengage along the border "in a coordinated and planned way" more than four years after the soldiers of the respective countries clashed in the rugged terrain of Ladakh, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with makeshift weapons such as stones, batons, and iron rods.

The face-off occurred in near-complete darkness and freezing temperatures, leading to fatalities as soldiers fell or were pushed from ridges.

Both armies in 2024 withdrew from their positions to their respective positions on their sides and verified each others' positions after that.

For over four years, the two countries were engaged in a military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) following the Galwan clash which took place in June 2020.

In an interview earlier this year, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his government is focused on ensuring that differences do not escalate into disputes. 

"Our focus is to ensure that these differences don't turn into disputes. That's what we actively work toward. Instead of discord, we emphasise dialogue, because only through dialogue can we build a stable, cooperative relationship that serves the best interests of both nations," PM Modi told Lex Fridman.