The Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday rejected China’s objection to India announcing standard names of places in Ladakh. In an official statement, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “Union Territory of Ladakh is integral part of India, no amount of denial by Chinese side can change this established fact.”The Ministry reiterated that standard names of places in Ladakh have been given to facilitate their accurate recognition and better awareness.MEA’s remarks come shortly after China strongly opposed India’s decision to assign standardised names to 28 strategic locations and geographical features in Ladakh, claiming that the areas belonged to it.“China has never recognised the so-called ‘Union Territory of Ladakh’ unilaterally and illegally established by India,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing.“The move is illegal and invalid and cannot change the fact that the relevant areas in the western sector of the China-India boundary have always belonged to China,” she said.On October 2, India formally identified 28 strategic locations and geographical features in Ladakh, including key border friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) such as Gogra and Hot Spring, on the official Indian map.The step, taken by the government in consultation with the Ladakh administration, aims at streamlining official cartography, facilitating precise identification, and fostering better public awareness of the sensitive border region.Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues - not necessarily in that order - for The Indian Express. She's been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. ... Read More Tags:Ladakh