In the face of Chinese protests over the Dalai Lama's visit to a region near India's border with Tibet, the US has backed the Tibetan spiritual leader's right to free movement.

"I don't think we have a position necessarily on his decision to travel to this area," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters on Monday, when asked to comment on the Dalai Lama's visit to the remote Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh state, which China claims as its own.