India Lodges Protests Over China's Standard Map, Says MEA Spokesperson

India on Tuesday lodged a protest over China's Standard Map that claims Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin as its territories.

Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry, said India rejects these claims as they have no basis and that such steps by the Chinese side only "complicate" the resolution of the boundary question.

"We have today lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on the so-called 2023 'standard map' of China that lays claim to India's territory. We reject these claims as they are baseless. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question," he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar denied China's claims of including Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin in its latest map.

Reacting to China's official map including Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as its territory, EAM Jaishankar was quoted saying that the Government of India is very clear about its own territories and that China cannot absurdly make other's territories their own.

While addressing the media over China's map, Jaishankar was quoted saying, "It is an old habit. Just by putting out maps with parts of India....this doesn't change in anything."

Earlier on Monday, China officially released the 2023 edition of its "standard map", which shows the state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin region as part of its territory. The map released on August 28 shows Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as South Tibet, and Aksai Chin occupied by it in the 1962 war as part of its territory.

Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea are also included within the Chinese territory in the new map. The map also incorporates China's claims over the nine-dash line thus laying claim to a large part of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei have all claims over the South China Sea areas.

The map was released by China's Ministry of Natural Resources during the celebration of Surveying and Mapping Publicity Day and the National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week on Monday in Deqing county, Zhejiang province, as per China Daily newspaper.

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.