New DELHI/BEIJINGcColor:> New Delhi on Tuesday sharply criticized Beijing for renaming places along their contested border in the Himalayas.
“China has persisted with its senseless attempts to rename places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. We firmly reject such attempts,” a spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry said in New Delhi, after the Chinese authorities had changed some 30 names.
“Assigning invented names will not alter the reality that Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India,” the spokesman added.
On Saturday, the Chinese authorities published names in the region, it refers to as “South Tibet,” renaming settlements, mountains, rivers, a lake, a mountain pass and stretch of land with Chinese and Tibetan designations.
The renaming was part of “standardization” in accordance with decisions taken by the State Council, the top Chinese administrative authority. (DPA)
