India’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that China was making “absurd claims” over Arunachal Pradesh, adding that the northeastern state which shares a border with China will always be an “integral and inalienable part of India”.
The Ministry of External Affairs in an official statement noted that the people of Arunachal Pradesh will “continue to benefit” from India’s development programmes and infrastructure projects.
China claims Arunachal Pradesh to be a part of southern Tibet. New Delhi rejects the claim, saying Arunachal Pradesh has always been a part of India.
“Repeating baseless arguments in this regard does not lend such claims any validity,” Randhir Jaiswal, India’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.
He was responding to last week’s comments made by Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman of China’s Ministry of National Defense, days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a road tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh on March 9.
The tunnel has been constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) at an altitude of 13,000 feet on the road connecting Tezpur, Assam to Tawang in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh near the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
(Inputs from agencies)