New Delhi

India has lodged a strong protest with China for issuing stapled visas to Indian nationals from Arunachal Pradesh and termed it "unacceptable", adding that New Delhi reserves its right to suitably respond to such actions, Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

   

"This has been something that we have discussed many years ago. Our longstanding and consistent position is that there should be no discrimination or differential treatment on the basis of domicile or ethnicity in the visa regime for Indian citizens holding valid Indian passports," Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

   

The latest provoation was triggered by news reports that China  has issued stapled visas to people from Arunachal Pradesh, who were due to participate in an international sporting event in China. Issuance of stapled visas have been a point of friction in India-China relationship. It is understood that the Indian government asked its Wushu team, scheduked to leave fpr China to participate in the games, not to board the flight. The decision was taken after three sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh were handed stapled visas by the Chinese authorities.

 

The MEA official spokesperson said at the media briefing, "It has come to our notice that stapled visas were issued to some of our citizens representing the country in an international sporting event in China. This is unacceptable. And we have lodged our strong protest with the Chinese side reiterating our consistent position on the matter and India reserves the right to suitably respond to such actions," he added.

   

In April, India outrightly rejected China's attempt to rename places of Arunachal Pradesh, Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi asserted that 

Arunachal Pradesh will always be an integral part of India.

   

The statement of Arindam Bagchi came after China's Ministry of Civil Affairs announced the names of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it referred to as "Zangnan, the southern part 

of Tibet."

   

In response to media queries regarding China renaming some places in Arunachal Pradesh, Arindam Bagchi in a statement said, "We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China 

has made such an attempt. We reject this outright."

   

He further said, "Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality."

   

MEA's statement came after China released names of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh in Chinese characters, Tibetan and pinyin according to the rules on geographical names issued by the State Council, China's cabinet, Global Times reported.