The Indian government said on Tuesday that it has raised a protest with Beijing over a new “standard map” that depicts the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin plateau as being part of China.
“We have today lodged a strong protest with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels regarding China’s so-called’standard map’ of 2023, which claims Indian territory.” We reject these allegations because they are without foundation. Such Chinese actions simply complicate the resolution of the boundary dispute,” said a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
The remarks were in response to revelations in Indian media about China’s new official map. The news prompted fury on social media, prompting India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, to respond angrily.
“Just by distributing maps of portions of India… This makes no difference. Our government is extremely clear about what constitutes our territory. Making ridiculous claims does not make other people’s regions yours, according to the minister. Between 2009 until 2013, Jaishankar was India’s Ambassador to China.
The Chinese foreign ministry responded to Delhi’s criticism on Wednesday, noting that the map’s dissemination “is the country’s normal exercise of sovereignty in accordance with the law.” “It’s hoped that relevant parties will treat it objectively and not over-interpret it,” Beijing added, according to the Global Times.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources, the 2023 edition of the standard map was unveiled on Monday, coinciding with ‘Surveying and Mapping Publicity Day’ and ‘National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week.’
The map was released following a meeting last week on the margins of the 15th BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, during which the leaders discussed attempts to address boundary disputes.
Modi and Xi agreed to “direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts toward expeditious disengagement and de-escalation,” according to India’s Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra. Both presidents are set to meet again at the G20 Summit, which will be held in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.
India and China have also had a 19th round of Corps Commander-level talks as part of steps toward disengagement and de-escalation, with the goal of resolving border concerns that have plagued relations since a violent incident erupted in May 2020.
Beijing said in April that it had “standardized” the names of 11 places in Zangnan, or South Tibet – the designation China uses for the eastern regions of Arunachal Pradesh where the two nuclear-armed neighbors waged a full-fledged war in 1962. According to the Global Times, the decision to rename residential neighborhoods, mountain summits, and rivers in Chinese characters, Tibetan, and pinyin was taken “in accordance with regulations on geographical names” issued by China’s cabinet. Similar renaming attempts were launched by Beijing in April 2017 and December 2021.
At the time, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Arindam Bagchi stated, “Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.”
