SHILLONG: “Arunachal Pradesh is definitely a part of India.”
This was stated by General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of eastern command of the Indian Army – Lt Gen RP Kalita on Monday (April 24).
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“It (Arunachal Pradesh being part of India) has been clearly stated in various articulations that has come out from our government,” Lt Gen RP Kalita said.
Lt Gen Kalita made this statement while briefing the media after taking part in the diamond jubilee celebrations of HQ 101 area of the Indian Army in Shillong, Meghalaya.
Speaking further on the matter, the eastern command chief said: “There are different perceptions about the line of actual control (LAC) …because of which there are certain times escalations take place between both sides during regular patrolling activities.”
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“But there five agreements in place between our army and the Chinese and all these problems, whenever anything happens are resolved using these existing protocols,” Lt Gen Kalita said.
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Lt Gen RP Kalita further said: “Over the last one year we have seen a stable security situation along the northern borders as well as in Arunachal Pradesh and also in Sikkim.”
“However, we are constantly monitoring the situation and our armed forces are prepared to deal with any contingency that may arise,” he added.
It may be mentioned here that China recently announced ‘standardising’ names of at least 11 places of Arunachal Pradesh.
China refers Arunachal Pradesh as ‘Zangnan’ and considers it as Southern Tibet.
India, on the other hand, rejected China’s attempt to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh, saying that the state has been and will always be “an integral and inalienable part of India”.
Earlier in April 2017, China ‘renamed’ at least 6 places in Arunachal Pradesh.
Later in December 2021 China ‘standardised’ at least 15 places inside Arunachal Pradesh.