The US has recognised Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India and strongly opposes any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by renaming localities, the White House has said.
The US reaction came in response to Beijing announcing Chinese names for 11 more places in Arunachal Pradesh which the neighbouring country claims as the southern part of Tibet.
The US has recognised Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India and strongly opposes any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by renaming localities, the White House has said.
Asked about the China’s move at a White House press briefing on Tuesday, the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “The United States has recognised that territory for a long time. And we strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by renaming localities. And so, again, this is something that we have long stood by.”
India on Tuesday outrightly rejected China renaming some places in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state is an integral part of India and assigning “invented” names does not alter this reality.
“Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality,” he said. It was the third batch of standardised geographical names for Arunachal Pradesh issued by China’s civil affairs ministry.
The American position dates back to 1962 and has been consistently reiterated by successive administrations since. But with the tensions along the India-China border escalating, there has been a renewed support for India’s claims. Earlier this year, two powerful senators introduced a bipartisan resolution reaffirming that the Senate too recognised Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India.
The first batch of the standardised names of six places in Arunachal Pradesh was released in 2017 and the second batch of 15 places was issued in 2021.
China’s renaming of the places in Arunachal Pradesh came in the midst of the lingering eastern Ladakh border standoff that began in May 2020.
The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a nearly three-year-long confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement of troops from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks. India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas.
The White House also welcomed ambassador Eric Garcetti’s imminent departure for India. After the longest period of not having an ambassador in New Delhi in the history of the relationship, the Senate finally confirmed Garcetti’s nomination in mid-March.
Vice president Kamala Harris swore-in the envoy, who has been meeting different stakeholders, both in the US government and outside, as he prepares for his assignment.
Garcetti, a former mayor of Los Angeles, hasn’t made any public remarks yet and is expected to do so after presenting his credentials to the President Droupadi Murmu, after arriving in Delhi.
When asked what was the presidential message Garcetti was carrying, Karine Jean-Pierre said that the relationship with India is one of the “most consequential” relationships the US has in the world.
“Ambassador Garcetti will be leading an ambitious effort to deepen our cooperation with India in critical and emerging technologies, expand our defence cooperation, and strengthen our economic and people-to-people ties”. Having Garcetti in office in Delhi is expected to help with the intense diplomatic calendar that lies ahead in terms of high level engagements between the two countries this summer.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden are expected to meet four times — on Hiroshima on the sidelines of the G7 summit and in Sydney during the Quad leaders’ level summit in May, in Washington, when Modi pays his first state visit to the American capital in June, and in New Delhi when Biden visits India for the G 20 summit in September.
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