China has justified as "goodwill" gesture its policy of issuing stapled visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh, saying such a policy does not "undermine" the positions of both India and China which have disputes over big parts of that area.

"China has resorted to a special arrangement of issuance of stapled visa to address the need for travel of local people. This gesture is out of goodwill and flexibility and if we do not do that we will not be able to address the concern of outbound and overseas travel of these people," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on a two-day visit to India, said.

Wang further said "if this is acceptable to Indian side, it could be continued in the future as it does not undermine or compromise our respective positions on the border question and we will be able to address the question of these people".