China protests over Prime Minister Narendra Modi weekend visit to Arunachal Pradesh were rebuffed by India on Tuesday, with the northern border state having long been seen as “an integral and inalienable part of India”.
The remarks from the Indian foreign ministry were made the day after Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, stated that Beijing had diplomatically protested Modi’s actions in the area and was adamantly against them.
On Saturday, Modi traveled to Arunachal Pradesh to officially open infrastructure projects, such as a tunnel that would connect the strategically important border town of Tawang to the state across all weather conditions.
It is anticipated that the tunnel would provide more rapid and seamless army mobility in the border area.
Arunachal Pradesh is allegedly a portion of southern Tibet according to China. Declaring that Arunachal Pradesh has always been a part of India, New Delhi disputes the assertion.
Arunachal Pradesh is occasionally visited by Indian leaders on their trips to other Indian states. Speaking out against these trips or India’s development initiatives is irrational, according to India’s foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal.
“Further, it will not change the reality that the state of Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.”
The 3,000 km (1,860 mi) border between the nuclear-armed neighbors is mostly unmarked. In conflicts further along their border in the western Himalayas in 2020, at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers lost their lives.
Having been uncomfortable neighbors for decades following a violent border conflict in 1962, both forces have subsequently strengthened their positions and added more soldiers and equipment along the frontier.
China gave 11 sites in Arunachal Pradesh Chinese names last year, inflaming relations with India.
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