New Delhi: In an attempt to stabilise and rebuild ties, India and China have decided to take certain people-centric steps. As part of these efforts, the countries have agreed in principle to resume direct flights between the two nations, nearly five years after the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent political tensions halted them.

They have also decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said this following Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri's talks with his Chinese counterpart Sun Weidong in Beijing.

Around 500 monthly direct flights operated between China and India before the pandemic. 

"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," the MEA said.

"In this context, the two sides decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the summer of 2025," it said.

A statement from China's foreign ministry did not mention the agreement on flight resumptions but said both countries had been working to improve ties since last year. "The improvement and development of China-India relations is fully in line with the two countries' fundamental interests," the Chinese statement said.

Flights between both countries were halted in early 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Services to Hong Kong eventually resumed as the public health crisis receded but not to the Chinese mainland, owing to the bitter fallout of the deadly troop clash later that year, AFP reported.

India's foreign ministry said 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.

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.

"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.

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