India has registed a strong protest through diplomatic channels with Beijing on China's so-called 2023 "standard map” which lays claim to Indian territory. In response to media queries on the matter, External Affairs Ministry's Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi Monday said, "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 have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question,” he added.



This comes after China’s state-run Global Times stated that the 2023 edition of China's standard map was officially released on Monday and launched on the website of the standard map service hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources.


The map featured parts of Indian territory with areas including Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin region as well as Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea. 


Notably, the map has been released days after PM Modi’s bilateral talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in South Africa where the two leaders discussed the situation along the Line of Actual Control.


India has continuously communicated that "Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India." 


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Meanwhile, the Congress on Tuesday targetted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over China’s 2023 edition of the “standard map” with party leader Pawan Khera saying that PM Modi has given a clean chit to Beijing and that India under the Modi government is accepting the Chinese claim line.


“A Prime Minister of 140 crore people standing in front of them with tied hands does not give a good message to the world... As soon as the BRICS Summit was over, China released a map showing Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as a part of China,” he told news agency ANI. 



“If Nehru had accepted the Chinese claim line, the war of 1962 would not have occurred. We did not accept it...Thus, war took place, and even though we lost the war, we did not accept the Chinese claim line...Today we are accepting the Chinese claim line without fighting a war,” he added. 


Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge also criticised PM Modi saying that "China's deception and belligerence continues, post Galwan, in the wake of PM Modi giving them a free pass, by saying "no one entered our territory", after 20 of our brave soldiers were martyred."


He expressed hope that the upcoming G20 Summit in New Delhi “will be another opportunity for us to expose the issue of China’s transgressions into Indian territory at the global stage.”



“Modi Govt must ensure that the illegal Chinese occupation of 2000 square kilometres of Indian territory along the LAC must end,” Kharge stated in a post on X, formerly Twitter.


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