The Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday said it has noted the comments made by the spokesperson of the Chinese Defence Ministry “advancing absurd claims” over the territory of Arunachal Pradesh and asserted that the state “was, is and will always be” an integral and inalienable part of India.

The response from the MEA comes days after the Chinese military reiterated its claim over Arunachal Pradesh, calling the area an “inherent part of China’s territory”, in the wake of India rejecting Beijing’s objection to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state.

 “We have noted the comments made by the spokesperson of the Chinese Defence Ministry advancing absurd claims over the territory of the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh,” MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.

The MEA statement said that it was in response to media queries on comments made by the spokesperson of the Chinese Defence Ministry regarding Arunachal Pradesh.

  “Repeating baseless arguments in this regard does not lend such claims any validity. Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Its people will continue to benefit from our development programmes and infrastructure projects,” he said.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang had said that the southern part of Xizang (the Chinese name for Tibet) is an inherent part of China’s territory, and Beijing “never acknowledges and firmly opposes” the “so-called Arunachal Pradesh illegally established by India”, official media in Beijing had reported.

 India has repeatedly rejected China’s territorial claims over Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state is an integral part of the country. New Delhi has also dismissed Beijing’s move to assign “invented” names to the area, saying it did not alter the reality.