Next up: Resolution heads to the Senate floor for a full vote
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, Tennessee’s U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty, and Texas’ U.S. Senator Jon Cornyn today announced that their bipartisan Senate resolution reaffirming the United States’ recognition of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of the Republic of India has passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This resolution is also cosponsored by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
The Senators’ resolution was introduced following the biggest clash between the Republic of India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Eastern Sector along the McMahon Line in six years.
“America’s values supporting freedom and a rules-based order must be at the center of all of our actions and relationships around the world—especially as the PRC government pushes an alternative vision,” said Senator Merkley, who serves as the Co-Chair of the Congressional Executive Commission on China. “Committee passage of this resolution affirms that the United States views the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of the Republic of India—not the People’s Republic of China—and commits the U.S. to deepening support and assistance to the region, alongside like-minded international partners.”
“I am delighted to join Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) to co-lead a Senate resolution to reaffirm India’s territorial integrity and push back against the CCP’s provocations,” said Senator Hagerty. “At a time when China continues to pose grave and gathering threats to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, it’s critical for the United States to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our strategic partners in the region—especially India and other Quad countries—and push back against the CCP’s broader strategy of territorial aggrandizement that it has pursued in the South and East China Seas, the Himalayas, and the southern Pacific.”
“As tensions between India and China escalate over their shared border, the United States must stand strong in our defense of democracy by supporting a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Senator Cornyn. “This resolution would reaffirm that the U.S. recognizes the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of the Republic of India, and I urge my colleagues to pass it without delay.”
The resolution reaffirms that the United States recognizes the McMahon Line as the international boundary between the People’s Republic of China and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, and pushes back against PRC claims that large portions of Arunachal Pradesh are PRC territory, which is a part of the PRC’s increasingly aggressive and expansionist policies.
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