China renaming various locations in Arunachal Pradesh is a “ridiculous exercise”, according to the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs. Addressing the weekly press briefing on Thursday, Arindam Bagchi addressed a number of issues related to India-China ties. He stressed that China should not complicate the bilateral relations “further”.
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“Calling Tuting as “DouDeng” or River Siyom as “XiYueMu” or even Kibithu as “Daba” does not alter the fact that Arunachal Pradesh has always been and will always remain an inalienable part of India,” he stated.
China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs last week announced “standardised” names of 15 locations in Arunachal Pradesh. This was the second time since 2017 that such an exercise was carried out by Beijing.
Mr. Bagchi said, “We hope that instead of engaging in such antics, China will work constructively with us to resolve the outstanding friction points in areas along the western sector of the LAC in India-China border areas”.
Bridge across Pangong Tso
Referring to the reports of China building a bridge across the Pangong Tso (lake) in Ladakh, he observed that the government was “monitoring this activity closely”. The construction was taking place in an area that’s been under China’s “illegal occupation” for six decades. “India never accepted such illegal occupation,” he asserted.
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Mr. Bagchi also took up the issue of a recent letter that the Political Counsellor of the Embassy of China sent to a group of MPs who attended a meeting of the All Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet (APIPFT), and urged the Chinese authorities to “refrain from hyping normal activities” by the Indian parliamentarians.
“The substance, tone and tenor of the letter are inappropriate. Chinese side should note that India is a vibrant democracy and Hon’ble MPs, as representatives of the people, undertake activities as per their views and beliefs,” he added.
