US questions China’s renaming of places in Arunachal Pradesh

New Delhi: After China renamed 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh alongside calling the area as ‘ South Tibet', the US on Tuesday questioned China’s ‘unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims’.

The White House in a statement said that the US has recognised Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India.

"The United States has recognised that territory (Arunachal Pradesh) for a long time (as an integral part of India). And we strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by renaming localities,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reportedly said.

China fueled the disputatious border issues with India by issuing on Sunday 11 more names to places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as Southern part of Tibet.

The places including mountain peaks, rivers and residential areas hitherto known by their Indian names have been slapped with Chinese names.

After having renamed several places previously in April 2017 and December 2021, China has gone ahead with renaming places unilaterally for the third time.

Reacting to China’s aggressive renaming of places, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) asserted that ‘invented’ names will not alter the reality that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India.

“We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi reportedly said.

Arindam Bagchi also said that Arunachal Pradesh will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.

The Indian and Chinese troops a couple of times previously entered in ‘confrontation’ at certain points in eastern Ladakh.

However, both sides chose to ease tension by engaging in diplomatic and military talks several times before China has gone about renaming places.