Arunachal: Ering pleads PM to raise China's ‘map issue’ with Xi Jinping at G20 Summit

Itanagar, Aug 30: Senior Congress leader from Arunachal Pradesh, Ninong Ering has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to raise the issue of Chinese cartographic aggression of People's Republic of China (PRC) in the upcoming G20 Summit in New Delhi.

The MLA from Arunachal’s Pasighat West constituency made this plea to PM Modi barely a day after China released the 2023 edition of its ‘standard map’ incorporating Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as part of its territory.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Ering said, “This unforeseen, unfortunate yet deliberate incident on the part of PRC has invoked deep resentment among the people of Arunachal Pradesh. It is in common knowledge that the PRC has earlier too tried to assert its claim over Arunachal Pradesh by renaming 11 locations in April 2023, 15 locations in 2021 and 6 places in 2017.

This recent release of the ‘PRC Standard Map’ is hence a culmination of their nefarious plans and a matter especially significant since Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India, and has scarred memories of 1962 Sino-Indian war.”

While referring to the Galwan Valley violent clash in 2020 and the December 2022 standoff in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh, the former Union Minister said, he has full faith in PM’s wisdom and the might of Indian Army in defending the country’s borders along the Line of Control (LoC) and Line of Actual Control (LAC). “But I would like to attract your attention towards treating this release of the aforementioned map as an attack on India's sovereignty and integrity,” he said.

“…Being an elected representative of Arunachal Pradesh’s Pasighat West seat (which sits right on the India-Tibet border), I appeal you to discuss this matter of PRC unilaterally making changes in its map with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the upcoming G20 Summit in New Delhi on September 9-10,” Ering said.

“Additionally, I would like to emphasize that this matter should be highlighted and condemned globally by relevant state-run media in order to apprise the world of the PRC's aggression. This is extremely important since any more silence on this issue will be considered, and even advertised by PRC as a ‘tacit approval of Indian side on Chinese claims’,” the Congress legislator added.