India and China are to decide on resuming the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, which was stopped in 2020 because of the ongoing inter-border crisis. This decision was made at a meeting between the foreign secretary of India, Vikram Misri and the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The Ministry of External Affairs, in its official statement, said ““The relevant mechanism will discuss the modalities for doing so as per existing agreements. They 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,”
Both sides have agreed to resume direct flights, promote and facilitate people-to-people contracts and increase cooperation between media and think tanks. The aim is to expand the mechanisms for functional exchanges between the two nations. But this will be enabled by a step-by-step dialogue and deliberation process that will help address each other’s priority areas of interest along with unavoidable concerns.
Areas of Concern
The specific concerns lie in the economic and trade areas. “Specific concerns…were discussed with a view to resolving these issues and promoting long-term policy, transparency, and predictability,” the MEA added.
Vikram Mistri is on a two-day visit to Beijing that will call for a discussion at the leadership level to discuss the next steps for India-China relations. India also maintains that its ties with China will not become normal unless there is peace in the border areas. After the completion of the disengagement process at Demchok and Debsang last year, the military on the two sides, have also resumed patrolling activities in the two areas after a gap of almost four and half years.
