India on Tuesday dismissed China's renaming of places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. "China has persisted with its senseless attempts to rename places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement. "We firmly reject such attempts. 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."
On Sunday, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs released the fourth list of names in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh which Beijing claims as part of south Tibet. The Chinese ministry had released the first list of names of six places in Zangnan in 2017, the second list of 15 places in 2021, the third list for 11 places in 2023.
Responding to a question on China's renaming of places in Arunachal, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said changing names won't have any effect and Arunachal was, is, and will always be India's part. "If today I change the name of your house, will it become mine? Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always be a state of India. Changing names does not have an effect," he said, adding that the Indian army is deployed at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).