Overview
- Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu told the North Eastern Council plenary in Shillong that Beijing's repeated naming and claims are not taken seriously by the state and its people.
- Khandu said Arunachal historically borders Tibet rather than China and argued that current border conditions are very different from the 1962 war because of recent infrastructure gains.
- He credited a 12-year push by the central government to build roads, connectivity and strategic facilities that he said have improved civilian access and military readiness along the frontier.
- India's Ministry of External Affairs has repeatedly rejected China’s renaming as fictitious and harmful to efforts to stabilise ties, saying such moves do not change ground realities.
- China has used place-renaming since 2017 as a form of territorial signalling, and the state and central response has focused on diplomatic rebuttal and public reassurance rather than reciprocal escalation.