India, China agree in principle to resume direct air services

Building on the thaw in relations, India and China have agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries and restart the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the summer of 2025.According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the agreements were part of the decisions taken by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and his Chinese counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong in their bilateral talks in Beijing on Monday.

“As agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at their meeting in Kazan in October, the two sides reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations comprehensively and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to stabilise and rebuild ties,” a release issued by the MEA noted.

Diplomatic and economic relations between India and China had soured since the Galwan Valley clash between Indian and Chinese armed forces in 2020. The relationship remained strained for almost four years till October, 2024 when the two sides reached an agreement on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). This effort by both countries to repair relations is significant especially in the backdrop of US President Donald Trump threatening China with multiple tariffs and keeping India on tenterhooks with possibility of additional tariffs to bridge the US’ trade deficit.

The MEA said that the relevant mechanism for resuming the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the summer of 2025 will be arrived at after discussing the modalities for doing so as per existing agreements.

 “They 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,” it said.

The two sides agreed to take appropriate measures to further promote and facilitate people-to-people exchanges, including media and think-tank interactions.

During his visit on January 26-27, the Foreign Secretary called on Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Director of the Office of Central Commission of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Liu Jianchao.