New Delhi, Jan 6 (UNI) India on Thursday hit out at China over its “ridiculous exercise” of renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh “to support untenable territorial claims” and expressed hope that it would instead work constructively with India to resolve the outstanding friction points on the LAC.
The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, in a media briefing, said that China’s attempt to give Chinese names to places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it considers part of South Tibet, “does not alter the fact that Arunachal Pradesh has always been and will always remain an inalienable part of India”.
“We had seen reports of the Chinese side naming some places in Arunachal Pradesh last week. We had also conveyed our views on such a ridiculous exercise to support untenable territorial claims.

“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 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,” the spokesperson added.
On December 30, India had similarly slammed China for attempting to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh, stating that “assigning invented names” by Beijing will not alter the fact that the state is an inalienable part of India.
China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs had last week announced that it had standardised in Chinese characters, Tibetan and Roman alphabets the names of 15 places in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh.
This is the second batch of such names of places in Arunachal Pradesh given by China.
The first batch of the standardised names of six places was released in 2017.
UNI/RN