India on Thursday dismissed China’s decision to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh for civil aviation purposes, with New Delhi maintaining that “assigning invented names” to places in the Indian state does not alter the fact that it is an integral part of India.

China’s ministry of civil affairs on Thursday announced “standardised” names for 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh to be used on Chinese maps.

In 2017, China had announced such standardised names for six places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls South Tibet.

Reacting to the development, external affairs ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said: “We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has attempted such renaming of places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. China had also sought to assign such names in April 2017.

“Arunachal Pradesh has always been, and will always be an integral part of India. Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not alter this fact.”

The 15 “renamed” places include eight townships, four mountains, two rivers and a mountain pass in Arunachal Pradesh.

Beijing claims 90,000sqkm in Arunachal Pradesh and calls it Zangnan.

Every time a central minister visits the state, China raises objections that are invariably contested by India.