India and China agreed in principle on Monday to resume direct flights between the two nations, almost five years after the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent political tensions stop them.
The announcement occurred after a visit to Beijing of the Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India, Vikram Misri, and foreshadows the last signs of a thaw in the icy ties between the two most populated nations in the world.
Misri’s journey to the Chinese capital marked one of the fastest official visits since a deadly confrontation of Himalaya troops on its border shared in 2020 caused relations to fall into minced.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India said that the visit of a high sent to Beijing had resulted in an agreement “in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries.”
“The relevant technical authorities of both parties will meet and negotiate an updated frame for this purpose on a nearby date,” he said.
India’s statement also said that China had allowed the resumption of a pilgrimage to a popular sanctuary to the Krishna Hindu deity that had also been suspended in the early decade.
Both parties had pledged to work harder in diplomacy to “restore mutual trust” and resolve pending commercial and economic issues, according to the statement.
Before the pandemic, around 500 direct monthly flights between China and India operated, according to an Indian media. money control.
A statement from the China Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not mention the agreement on flight resumption, but said that both countries had been working to improve relations since last year.
“The improvement and development of China-India relations are fully in line with the fundamental interests of the two countries,” says the Chinese statement.
India and China are intense rivals that compete for strategic influence throughout southern Asia. Flights between the two countries were suspended in early 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic.
The services to Hong Kong finally resumed when the public health crisis decreased, but not to Continental China, due to the bitter consequences of the deadly confrontation of troops of that same year.
At least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese died in skirmish in a remote stretch of large -altitude border areas along its 3,500 kilometers border.
The consequences of the incident caused India to take drastic measures against Chinese companies, preventing them from investing in critical economic sectors, in addition to prohibiting hundreds of Chinese games of games and electronic commerce, including Tiktok.
Beijing and New Delhi agreed last October an important military withdrawal at a key point of their disputed border. The agreement occurred shortly before an unusual formal meeting, the first in five years, between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Misri’s visit to Beijing took place weeks after a diplomatic tour of the National Security Advisor of India, Ajit Doval, a key bureaucratic ally of Modi.
