New Delhi
\nIndia rejected on Tuesday the renaming by China of places in what India regards as its eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as part of its territory.
\nChina and India fought a war along parts of their poorly demarcated 3,800-km (2,360-mile) frontier in 1962 and clashes in mountainous regions in recent years have seriously strained relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
\nThe latest angry exchange of words was triggered on Sunday when China\u2019s Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a statement in which it said it had \u201cstandardised\u201d the names of 11 places, including five mountains, in what China calls its southern Tibet region.
\nThe statement included a map that showed the 11 places renamed by China as being within \u201cZangnan\u201d, or southern Tibet in Chinese, with Arunachal Pradesh included in southern Tibet and China\u2019s border with India demarcated as just north of the Brahmaputra river.
\n\u201cArunachal Pradesh is, has been and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India,\u201d Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Twitter.
\nBut a spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry said the name changes were \u201ccompletely within the scope of China\u2019s sovereignty\u201d.
\n\u201cThe southern Tibet region is Chinese territory,\u201d the spokesperson, Mao Ning, told a regular media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.
\nAt least 24 soldiers were killed when the two sides clashed in the Ladakh region, on the western part of their border, in 2020 but the situation calmed down after diplomatic and military talks.
\nIn December last year, troops from the two sides engaged in scuffles in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh.
\nIndian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said last month the situation in Ladakh was fragile and dangerous, with military forces deployed very close to each other in some places.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi India rejected on Tuesday the renaming by China of places in what India regards as its eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as part of its territory. China and India fought a war along parts of their poorly demarcated 3,800-km (2,360-mile) frontier in 1962 and clashes in mountainous regions in recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-323877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n