The Republic of India and China to Resume Direct Flights After Half-Decade Halt
The Indian government has stated that non-stop air travel between India and the Asian giant will resume in October, marking a further move towards the gradual normalization of relations between the two countries.
Non-stop services were suspended between the two nations since 2020, following deadly troop clashes along their shared Himalayan border.
But over the recent period, the Indian and Chinese governments have been striving for improving diplomatic connections, including taking actions to de-escalate tensions.
On the past Thursday, IndiGo confirmed that it would resume direct flights between the cities of Kolkata and Guangzhou from October 26.
In a official communication issued on the same day, India's foreign ministry stated that the restarting of air services would "further facilitate people-to-people contact" between the two countries and contribute towards "gradual normalization of bilateral exchanges."
The two Asian powers share an unclear frontier that is more than 3,440km long and have conflicting land assertions.
In 2020, soldiers from both sides fought at the Galwan river valley, leaving at least twenty Indian troops and four Chinese military personnel fatally wounded.
It was the earliest lethal encounter between the two sides since 1975 and led to a halt in diplomatic engagement.
Nevertheless over the last several quarters, China and India have been taking initiatives to gradually re-rebuild the strained rapport.
High-ranking officials from the two sides have held several rounds of talks and engagements.
In October last year, the two nations agreed on patrolling arrangements to de-escalate tensions along the contentious frontier in the Himalayas.
In the current year, China began permitting religious travelers from India to visit some holy locations in what it calls the Tibet region, while the Indian authorities reopened visa services to visitors from China and agreed to resume talks to open cross-frontier commerce through designated passes.
The Indian government's strained ties with the US over trade restrictions has also given a boost to India-China relations.
In August, China's top diplomat visited Delhi, where he said that India and China should see each other as "allies" rather than "adversaries."
Later the same month, Chinese ambassador to India Xu Feihong labeled the US a "bully" for enforcing heavy duties on India and other countries.
In August, India's premier visited the People's Republic for the first time in seven years for the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), where he also met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit, and the both leaders re-iterated their commitment towards normalising India-China ties.