‘Absurd, baseless’: India counters China’s new claim over Arunachal

New Delhi, March 19

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has hit out at China’s Defence Ministry for its “absurd claims over the territory of the Indian state of Arunachal”, and underlined that “repeating baseless arguments in this regard does not lend such claims any validity”.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang had said that the southern part of Xizang (the Chinese name for Tibet) is an inherent part of China’s territory. Beijing “never acknowledges and firmly opposes” the “so-called Arunachal Pradesh illegally established by India”, he added, as quoted by the official media in Beijing.

The Chinese military’s comments followed those of its foreign office and were targeting PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh earlier this month.

“Repeating baseless arguments in this regard does not lend such claims any validity. Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Its people will continue to benefit from our development programmes and infrastructure projects,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

Earlier this month, PM Modi addressed the “Viksit Bharat Viksit North-East Programme” in Itanagar and laid the foundation stone for multiple development projects worth about Rs 55,600 crore in Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.

Last week, South Block had hit back at Beijing for objecting to Prime Minister Modi’s Arunachal Pradesh visit. “Indian leaders visit Arunachal Pradesh from time to time, as they visit other states of India. Objecting to such visits or India’s developmental projects does not stand to reason,” Jaiswal had then said.

Inalienable part

Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. — Randhir Jaiswal, MEA spokesperson