Nearly five years after the COVID-19 outbreak and ensuing political unrest stopped direct flights between the two countries, India and China agreed in principle on Monday to restore them.
The declaration signals the latest indications of a thaw in the icy relations between the two most populous countries in the world and came at the end of a visit to Beijing by New Delhi’s top career diplomat.
One of the highest-level official visits since a deadly Himalayan Army confrontation on their shared border in 2020 sent relations into a tailspin was that of Indian Foreign Ministry Secretary Vikram Misri, who traveled to the Chinese capital.
A top envoy’s visit to Beijing produced an agreement “in principle to resume direct air travel,” according to a statement from India’s foreign ministry.
