While the talks between Chinese and Indian foreign ministers are claimed to have shown signs of progress in the demilitarisation of perceptionally contested territory in eastern Ladakh after months of military standoff, China has recently renewed its territorial assertiveness in Arunachal Pradesh. On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, criticized a group of Indian mountaineers who put up a new name for a hitherto unnamed peak in Arunachal Pradesh, the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso.
Lin said the action is “illegal” and argued that “Arunachal Pradesh” does not exist as India’s valid geographical term in what China says is its territory. This remark was made when briefing the media in Beijing after a NIMAS Ministry of Defence-sponsored expedition to Mount Kailash. Col Ranveer Singh Jamwal led the scale of an unclimbed mountain that was at an altitude of 6392 meters of Arunachal Pradesh, and the team decided to name the summit as the 6th Dalai lama. It is a great pleasure and honor to welcome the Mon Tawang, born Dalai Lama in 1682, who has been a great wisdom maker for the Monpa people.
Regarding the Chinese remarks, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu extended his congratulations to the NIMAS team for the new achievement. He congratulated them on their climbing of the uncharted mountain in the Gorichen Massif which measures 6,383 meters, via social media site X.
China still insists that Arunachal Pradesh belongs to its South Tibet and recently sought to strengthen its stance by renaming some of the places in the territory after 2017. India, in return, has strongly denied China’s allegations, arguing that China’s efforts to give ‘fictitious’ names to places in Arunachal Pradesh do not change the fact that it belongs to that state. The Indian government has always stood for the territorial integrity of Arunachal Pradesh and highlighted the principles of reciprocity as an essential element of the affair.
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