New Delhi: China has agreed to the resumption of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra this year, during the visit of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri to Beijing. Both India and China have also agreed in principle to resume direct flights between the two countries.
“The two sides decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the summer of 2025; the relevant mechanism will discuss the modalities for doing so as per existing agreements,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement issued Monday.
It added that both sides also “agreed to hold an early meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism to discuss resumption of provision of hydrological data and other cooperation pertaining to trans-border rivers”.
Further, the statement said New Delhi and Beijing “agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries” and that the “relevant technical authorities on the two sides will meet and negotiate an updated framework for this purpose at an early date”.
Misri was in China for a two-day visit starting 26 January till 27 January for the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister dialogue mechanism. The visit of the Indian foreign secretary follows meetings between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in November on the margins of the G20 Leaders summit in the Brazilian city of Rio De Janeiro and the meeting at the special representatives format between India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Wang last month in Beijing.
The high-level interactions stem from the political thaw in ties between New Delhi and Beijing following an agreement to disengage at friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), first announced by India on 21 October, 2024. The agreement paved the way for a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the BRICS summit on 23 October in the Russian city of Kazan.
Ties between the two countries have been tense since the clashes at Galwan in the summer of 2020.
Misri met with Wang earlier Monday, where the Chinese foreign minister asked New Delhi to meet Beijing “halfway” and to take substantive measures to improve ties between the two countries.
India has been raising the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in talks with the Chinese. The yatra remains suspended from 2020 when it was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After Misri’s visit the two sides have agreed to resume the yatra this summer.
China has long been raising the demand for resumption of direct air flights between the two countries. Direct flights, too, have remained suspended since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, Beijing has also urged New Delhi to issue more visas to Chinese nationals travelling to India.
The statement by the MEA makes no mention of the discussions of issuance of visas, however, it states that both sides have agreed to “take appropriate measures” to facilitate people-to-people ties between India and China. Beijing has also been calling for more exchanges between journalists and think-tanks as a part of people-to-people ties.
Foreign Secretary Misri met with the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Sun Weidong. Sun was the Chinese ambassador to India between 2019 and 2022.
Misri also met Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
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