India and China have exchanged sharp statements over New Delhi’s decision to formally identify 27 places and geographical features in Arunachal Pradesh by their standard names on official Indian maps. India has defended the move, reiterating that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of the country, while China has rejected the Indian naming exercise and renewed its claim over the region.
India formally identified the locations last week, with the move aimed at establishing standard names for the places and features on the official Indian map. According to the government, marking the locations on the Survey of India map is intended to facilitate their accurate recognition and improve public awareness about them.
The latest exchange is part of a broader and longstanding disagreement between the two countries over Arunachal Pradesh. China claims the state as part of what it refers to as “Zangnan,” or southern Tibet, while India maintains that Arunachal Pradesh is an inseparable part of its territory.
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun criticised India’s latest move, saying Beijing did not recognise what it described as “the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ illegally set up by India.” He also argued that replacing names used by China with Indian “standard names” was invalid and would not change Beijing’s position on the territory.
New Delhi, however, has consistently rejected China's attempts to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh. Indian officials have described such names as fictitious and said that changing the names of places cannot affect territorial realities or India's administration of the state.
While the two governments have taken steps in recent years to reduce tensions at some points along the LAC, territorial differences remain a major source of friction in the relationship.
India maintains that its position on Arunachal Pradesh is clear and unchanged: the state is an integral part of the country, and attempts to alter place names cannot change its territorial status. China, meanwhile, continues to assert its own claim over the region. The competing positions underline the broader territorial dispute that remains unresolved between the two neighbouring countries.