NEW DELHI: India and China on Wednesday agreed to continue efforts to promote people-to-people exchanges, including resumption of direct flights, interaction of media and celebration of the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties, as part of efforts to normalise the bilateral relationship.
The two sides reached the agreement at official consultations between the foreign ministries in Beijing, a day after a meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs discussed the resumption of cross-border cooperation, especially on trans-border rivers and the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage.
Both meetings were part of efforts by New Delhi and Beijing to reboot their ties following an understanding last October to end the military standoff in Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which had taken the relationship to a six-decade low. Two days after this understanding, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met in the Russian city of Kazan and agreed to revive several mechanisms to normalise the overall relationship.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the two sides reviewed action taken so far to implement the strategic direction and specific steps agreed on at a meeting between foreign secretary Vikram Misri and China’s vice foreign minister Sun Weidong on January 27 to stabilise and rebuild ties, according to an Indian readout.
“They agreed to continue efforts to further facilitate and promote people-to-people exchanges, including arrangements for resumption of direct flights, interaction of media and think-tanks, and celebration of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations,” the readout said.
“The two sides have made further progress on the modalities to resume Kailash Manasarovar Yatra in 2025,” it said.
The resumption of direct flights has been a key ask of the Chinese side, which has also called for easing of visa restrictions and resumption of wider trade ties.
The two sides also took stock of planned exchanges and activities for this year, and discussed the “resumption of dialogue mechanisms in a step-by-step manner” to use them to address “each other’s priority areas of interest and concern” and move relations to a more stable and predictable path, the readout said.
Gourangalal Das, the joint secretary (East Asia) in the external affairs ministry, participated in the consultative meeting with Liu Jinsong, director general of the Department of Asian Affairs of China’s foreign ministry. Das had also led the Indian team at Tuesday’s meeting of the WMCC, which explored ways to implement decisions made at a meeting of the Special Representatives on the boundary question in Beijing last December.
According to the readout, the two sides also pointed to “positive” developments in bilateral ties since the meeting of Modi and Xi last October. Since then, the foreign ministers have met twice, while the Special Representatives have also met. These high-level meetings provided “strategic guidance to stabilise and further develop relations”, the readout said.
At the meeting between the foreign secretary and the Chinese vice foreign minister in January, the two sides decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, which has not been held since 2020, and also “agreed in principle” to resume direct flights. They had also agreed to take steps to promote people-to-people exchanges, including media and think tank interactions.
India-China relations plummeted to their lowest point since the 1962 border war following skirmishes between troops of the two sides in Ladakh sector of the LAC in April-May 2020 and a brutal clash at Galwan Valley in June that year which left 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops dead.
Following dozens of rounds of talks under the WMCC mechanism and between senior military commanders, the two sides withdrew frontline forces on both banks of Pangong lake and at Gogra and Hot Springs. On October 21 last year, the two sides reached an understanding on withdrawing forces from the two remaining “friction points” at Demchok and Depsang.
More recently, China has welcomed Modi’s remarks that differences between the two neighbours are natural, but these shouldn’t turn into disputes since bilateral cooperation is necessary for global stability and prosperity. China’s foreign ministry said such comments are “positive” and that Beijing stands ready to work with New Delhi to rebuild the relationship.