India & China agree to resume Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, direct air services
| 2025-01-27
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on January 27, 2025.
The two sides also agreed to take steps to further promote and facilitate people-to-people exchanges, including media and think-tank interactions
Signalling a thaw in bilateral ties, India and China have 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 as it announced the development on Monday (January 27, 2025).
The two sides have also agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries and discuss the resumption of provision of hydrological data and other cooperation pertaining to trans-border rivers.
The decisions were taken during Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to Beijing for a meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Foreign Minister mechanism between India and China on January 27, 2025.
As agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at their meeting in Kazan, Russia in October 2024, the two sides reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations comprehensively and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to stabilize and rebuild ties, the MEA said.
In addition to deciding to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, the two 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.
Additionally, they 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, the MEA said.
According to the MEA, the two sides recognize that 2025, being the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China, should be utilized 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.
The two sides took stock of the extant mechanisms for functional exchanges. It was agreed to resume these dialogues step by step and to utilize 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.
During his visit on January 26-27, 2025, Foreign Secretary Misri also 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.
Prime Minister Modi and President Xi met in Kazan, Russia on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, on October 23, 2024, two days after India and China reached an agreement to disengage frontline forces in the Western Sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. This agreement marked the resolution of the last two friction points—Demchok and Depsang—along the LAC.
During their meeting, the two leaders discussed the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains.
Following this, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of the G20 Summit in Brazil on November 18, 2024. This was followed by a meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun at the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ meeting in Laos on November 20, 2024.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing for the 23rd Meeting of the Special Representatives (SRs) on the India-China border question on December 18, 2024. The SR-level talks was the first since the Galwan Valley clash of June 2020.
India-China relations hit a low point in June 2020 following the Galwan Valley clash, which resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese troops. The incident led to the massing of troops along the LAC and a prolonged military standoff. Subsequent disengagement agreements were reached at Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake, Gogra, and Hot Springs, but Demchok and Depsang remained unresolved until October 2024.
The two sides have also agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries and discuss the resumption of provision of hydrological data and other cooperation pertaining to trans-border rivers.
The decisions were taken during Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to Beijing for a meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Foreign Minister mechanism between India and China on January 27, 2025.
As agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at their meeting in Kazan, Russia in October 2024, the two sides reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations comprehensively and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to stabilize and rebuild ties, the MEA said.
In addition to deciding to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, the two 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.
Additionally, they 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, the MEA said.
According to the MEA, the two sides recognize that 2025, being the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China, should be utilized 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.
The two sides took stock of the extant mechanisms for functional exchanges. It was agreed to resume these dialogues step by step and to utilize 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.
During his visit on January 26-27, 2025, Foreign Secretary Misri also 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.
Prime Minister Modi and President Xi met in Kazan, Russia on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, on October 23, 2024, two days after India and China reached an agreement to disengage frontline forces in the Western Sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. This agreement marked the resolution of the last two friction points—Demchok and Depsang—along the LAC.
During their meeting, the two leaders discussed the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains.
Following this, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of the G20 Summit in Brazil on November 18, 2024. This was followed by a meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun at the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ meeting in Laos on November 20, 2024.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing for the 23rd Meeting of the Special Representatives (SRs) on the India-China border question on December 18, 2024. The SR-level talks was the first since the Galwan Valley clash of June 2020.
India-China relations hit a low point in June 2020 following the Galwan Valley clash, which resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese troops. The incident led to the massing of troops along the LAC and a prolonged military standoff. Subsequent disengagement agreements were reached at Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake, Gogra, and Hot Springs, but Demchok and Depsang remained unresolved until October 2024.
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