China's renaming of various locations in Arunachal Pradesh was categorically rejected by India, which said that the state is an integral part of India and that giving it "invented" names does not change this reality.
India reacted after Beijing revealed the Chinese names for 11 more locations in Arunachal Pradesh, which the neighbouring nation claims is the southern portion of Tibet. Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), stated that India categorically rejected China's renaming of the locations in Arunachal Pradesh.
"We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright," Bagchi said.
"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 said.
The third set of Arunachal Pradesh's standard geographic names was released by China's civil affairs ministry. Six locations in Arunachal Pradesh had their standard names released in a first batch in 2017, and 15 further locations had their standard names released in a second batch in 2021. The official names of the 11 places were released by China's ministry of civil affairs.
The media said that it also specified the category of locations' names and their subordinate administrative districts, as well as accurate coordinates for two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks, and two rivers.