New Delhi: In a counterstroke move, the newly-elected Government of India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given back really hard on China’s renaming strategy on Indian territory, by reportedly renaming around 30 places in China's Tibet Autonomous Region. A report in the Diplomat has claimed the NDA government at the Centre has approved the renaming of 30 locations in Tibet, signaling a strong response to China's nomenclature aggression. These names, grounded in historical research and connections to the Tibet region, will be published by the Indian Army and updated on their maps along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The Union government of India has listed and renamed 11 residential areas, 12 mountains, four rivers, one lake, one mountain pass, and a piece of land. According to the reports, the names have been presented in Chinese characters, Tibetan, and Pinyin.

Under PM Modi 3.0 Govt, India Aims to Assert Its Territorial Claims

India, under the PM Modi 3.0 government, aims to assert its territorial claims by assigning its own names to locations in occupied Tibet.

India’s significant step to rename places in China has come up as a retaliatory move countering China’s previous provocation, during which the neighbouring country had released a list of standardised names for 30 places in Arunachal Pradesh in April this year, drawing strong objections from India. China has been involved in renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh since 2017, and the latest list contains nearly as many new names as the previous three lists combined.

Ties between the two neighbours hit a low except for trade ever since the eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong Tso area. The two sides have so far held 21 rounds of military talks to resolve the standoff.

On China’s step to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh and claim it to be theirs, India has consistently affirmed Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part and inalienable of the country.

The Ministry Of External Affairs (MEA) has maintained that assigning invented names does not alter this reality. This strong response from India comes as China’s expansionist policies in regions like the South China Sea have garnered global disapproval.

Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar, who took charge as the Union Cabinet Minister for the second consecutive term, reaffirmed the country’s robust stance on issues concerning China and Pakistan, stating that both border issues and cross-border terrorism, will be dealt with by India.