Home Minister Amit Shah says all Indians can sleep peacefully at home thanks to the hard work of the security forces.
China firmly opposes a visit by India’s interior minister to Arunachal Pradesh and considers its activities in the area a violation of Beijing’s territorial sovereignty, a foreign ministry spokesman said.
China has renamed some places in what India considers the eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, and Beijing claims those areas are part of its territory.
“Zangnan is the territory of China,” said Wang Wenbin, spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, on Monday in response to a question about the visit by Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah.
“The Indian official’s visit to Zangnan violates China’s territorial sovereignty and is not conducive to the peace and tranquility of the border situation.”
At the launch of a program called “Vibrant Villages” in Kibithoo, the border village of Arunachal Pradesh, Shah said, according to local media, that the whole country could sleep peacefully in their homes thanks to the hard work of the security forces on India’s borders.
Border areas are the “first priority” of the Indian government, the home minister said.
“The times when someone could invade Indian land are over. Today no one can even occupy land equal to a needle point,” he added.
Attempted name change
China and India have had several skirmishes over the disputed border region, and clashes in mountainous areas in recent years have seriously strained ties between nuclear-armed neighbors.
The two countries fought a war along parts of their ill-defined 3,800 km (2,360 mi) border in 1962, and clashes in mountainous regions in recent years have further strained relations.
The latest barb trade between neighbors kicked off in early April when China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a statement saying it had “standardized” the names of 11 places, including five mountains, in what China calls the southern Tibet region. “.
The statement included a map showing the 11 places renamed by China as being within “Zangnan,” or South Tibet in Chinese, with Arunachal Pradesh in South Tibet and China’s border with India demarcated as just north of the Brahmaputra River.
India’s foreign ministry rejected the move and a spokesperson said, “Arunachal Pradesh is, was and always will be an integral and inalienable part of India.”
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