India on Tuesday lodged a strong protest with China over its release of the so-called "standard map" that laid claim over Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin as region within its borders. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi issued a strongly-worded statement saying that India rejected these claims.
Beijing released the 2023 edition of the so-called "standard map of China" that continued to show Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as regions belonging to China. The "map" also showed the entire South China Sea as part of China as it featured in the previous editions of the 'map'. Issuing a statement, External Affairs Ministry said, "We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question."
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Arunachal Pradesh map
China's move comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks over the ongoing military standoff along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. Jinping is also expected to travel to New Delhi for the G20 Summit being hosted by India on September 9-10.
India has reiterated multiple times its assertion that “Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar too slammed the move, saying that it is "an old habit" of China.
"We are very clear what our territories are. This government is very clear about what we need to do to defend our territory. You can see that on our borders. I think there should be no doubt about that. Just making absurd claims does not make other people's territories yours. Let's be very clear on that," Jaishankar said while replying to a question on the 'map' at an event hosted by the NDTV.
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The first batch of such standardised names of six places in Arunachal Pradesh was released in 2017 while the second batch of 15 places was issued in 2021. In early April, Beijing announced Chinese names for 11 more places in Arunachal Pradesh, which India outrightly rejected asserting that the state is an integral part of India and that assigning "invented" names does not alter this reality.
