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India and China have decided to resume Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and agreed in principle to restore direct flights as the two sides announced several measures to ‘rebuild’ bilateral ties over two-and-a-half months after their militaries completed disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh.
According to PTI, The decisions were announced after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri held wide-ranging talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong in Beijing.
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, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
The foreign secretary also met Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Liu Jianchao.
Misri and Sun reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations comprehensively and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to ‘stabilise and rebuild ties’, the MEA said in a statement.
‘In this context, the two sides 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,’ it said.
The MEA said it was 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.
‘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,’ 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, it added.
‘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,’ the MEA said.
