China has no right to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh: India warns neighbour over illegal occupation attempt

Taking offence to China renaming six places in Arunachal Pradesh, India on Thursday said inventing names of states of a neighbour does not make illegal occupation legal.

Reacting to the issue, Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Gopal Baglay said Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India.

He said “renaming or inventing names of states of your neighbour do not make illegal occupation as legal”.

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China on Wednesday had announced that it has “standardised” official names for six places in the Northeastern state and termed the provocative move as a “legitimate action”.

The Chinese move came days after Beijing lodged strong protests with India over the Dalai Lama’s visit to the frontier state. 

Read | China declares 'standardised' names for 6 places in Arunachal, dubs it 'legitimate'