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Direct Flights And More: India-China Go Whole Hog To ‘Rebuild’ Ties Nearly 5 Yrs After Galwan Clash

New Delhi and Beijing to make it business-as-usual between both countries, including allowing Indian pilgrims to visit Kailash Mansarovar, as Asian giants decide to keep border tensions aside. 

India-China Talks: From resumption of direct flights between both countries, to supporting China’s presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and allowing Indian pilgrims to visit Kailash Mansarovar, India and China have gone the whole hog to “stabilise and rebuild” ties nearly five years after the military standoff began at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in April 2020 and led to the bloody Galwan Valley clash in June that year.

The decision to bring the ties back to normalcy was taken during Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri's ongoing two-day visit to China, where he has called on Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and director at the Office of Central Commission of Foreign Affairs. Misri also met the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong and Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Liu Jianchao.

These wide-ranging meetings are taking place at a time when the armies of both sides are disengaging from the confrontational posture at the LAC in Ladakh. In June 2020, Indian and Chinese troops clashed with each other with sticks and clubs at the Galwan River Valley — the first India-China confrontation since 1975 where soldiers died on both sides. India lost 20 of its soldiers while China said they lost four.

During the meeting between Misri and Sun, both sides “reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations comprehensively and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to stabilise and rebuild ties". Interestingly, both Misri and Sun were envoys to each other’s countries when the military standoff began in 2020.

One of the outcomes of the meeting was China agreeing to India’s demand to allow pilgrims to visit the Kailash Mansarovar region, which lies in Tibet. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has referred to it as Xizang Autonomous Region in its readout.

“The two sides agreed to resume the Indian pilgrims’ visit to Kailash Mansarovar in Xizang Autonomous Region, China, in 2025, and will discuss relevant arrangements as soon as possible,” the Chinese readout on the meeting said.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), both India and China 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 two sides have also agreed to resume direct flights between both countries.

The Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage and direct air connectivity were stopped first due to Covid. Thereafter, because of the border tensions, all people-to-people linkages came to a halt.

While India made no mention of the Chinese presidency of the SCO this year, Beijing said in its statement, “The Indian side will extend full support for the Chinese presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and will actively participate in the meetings under the SCO umbrella.”

ALSO READ | India Should Not Let SCO Walk The SAARC Road  

'To Promote People-To-People Exchanges'

The SCO was established in 2001. This year, China assumed the rotating presidency of the SCO for 2024-2025. It will host the 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in China.

In 2023, India was the SCO chair and held the summit meeting in virtual mode.

“The two sides agreed to take appropriate measures to further promote and facilitate people-to-people exchanges, including media and think-tank interactions. They agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries; the relevant technical authorities on the two sides will meet and negotiate an updated framework for this purpose at an early date,” said the MEA.

China said, “The two sides agreed to resume direct flights between Chinese mainland and India, support the competent authorities of the two countries to coordinate and push it forward, and take measures to facilitate personnel flows and exchanges of resident journalists.”

On the issue of trans-border river cooperation, both sides agreed to “advance and maintain communication on holding a new round of meeting of the China-India Expert Level Mechanism on Trans-border Rivers at an early date". 

Lastly, India has also agreed to China’s demand to celebrate the completion of 75 years of diplomatic ties between both countries.

“The two sides recognise that 2025, being the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China, should be utilised to redouble public diplomacy efforts to create better awareness about each other and restore mutual trust and confidence among the public. The two sides will conduct a number of commemorative activities to mark this anniversary,” said the MEA.

It added, “The two sides took stock of the extant mechanisms for functional exchanges. It was agreed to resume these dialogues step by step and to utilise them to address each other’s priority areas of interest and concern. Specific concerns in the economic and trade areas were discussed with a view to resolving these issues and promoting long-term policy transparency and predictability.”

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