Our Correspondent
Taking strong exception to the China renaming six places in Arunachal Pradesh, India Thursday said inventing names of states of a neighbour did not make illegal occupation legal. Responding to a query, MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and will always remain so.
Yesterday, China had announced that it has standardised official names for six places in the North-Eastern state and termed the provocative move as a legitimate action. The Chinese move came days after Beijing lodged strong protests with India over the Dalai Lama’s visit to the frontier state.
Replying to a media query on Kulbhushan Jadhav, Mr. Baglay said, India is awaiting official response from Islamabad on the issue after New Delhi summoned Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner yesterday. He said, all allegations against Kulbhushan are incorrect and Pakistan is trying to mis-inform the international community. Mr.Baglay said, 15 requests have been made so far by India for Consular access to meet Kulbhushan. He said, Government has already made it clear that all efforts will be made to ensure safe release of Jadhav.
On H1-B visa issue, Mr. Baglay said, the visa is not an immigration issue for India but a matter of mutual trade and service. He said, at present it is needless to speculate on the implications of H1-B visa as it is only an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump.