China and India are preparing to resume direct passenger flights as soon as next month, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with ongoing negotiations.
New Delhi has asked airlines such as Air India and IndiGo to be ready to begin flights to China at short notice, with a formal announcement likely during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in China on August 31, the news agency said.
Indian and Chinese carriers previously operated direct fights between key cities before they were suspended during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The resumption of direct flights is seen as the latest sign of a thaw between the Asian neighbors, whose relations were strained because of a deadly clash in the Himalayas in 2020.
Efforts to normalize ties began in October 2024, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan.
Both leaders approved an agreement to disengage from areas of tension and a commitment to work towards restoring relations.
Following multiple rounds of military and diplomatic talks, proposals to ease trade and investment restrictions between India and China have gained momentum. Beijing has long requested the resumption of direct flights between mainland China and India.
Last month, New Delhi restarted issuing tourist visas to Chinese citizens after a five-year pause. In June, a group of Indians crossed over into Tibet for the Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra, one of the holiest pilgrimages in Hinduism, for the first time since 2020.
China has also eased curbs on shipments of urea to India, which is the world’s top importer of the crop nutrient, another Bloomberg report said.
The warming of ties between New Delhi and Beijing comes as India’s relations with the US face challenges, after President Donald Trump sharply raised tariffs on Indian goods over the Asian country’s imports of Russian oil.
In July, top officials from Beijing, Moscow, and New Delhi expressed interest in reviving the trilateral RIC (Russia-India-China) format.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
Territorial dispute is not the most difficult hurdle in India-China relationship. I think both are fine living with the status quo and agree to disagree. The most difficult hurdle is Pakistan. Pakistan-China relationship dated back to the 60s. China would not ditch Pakistan unless Pakistan betrays China first. Just like India would not ditch Russia for US.
China welcomes Modi, although has strong objections to India, seeing it as one of the most faithful Western proxies alongside Japan.
Moreover India cannot hide that its prime goal is to usurp China’s geopolitical role, with the help of the West, so that’s why it cultivates so dearly the tie with the West, despite the colonialism it suffered from more than 200 years.
It’ll be 300 in 2047 if still gladly submit to the western side. Quite different from China since it decided to once and for all leave the Century of Humiliation
This re-establishment of relations is the opposite from what America was trying to achieve by divide and conquer expect more sanctions from “the Donald “
So the world could see or experience the difference in political and economical results.
Yes it has a greater effect on the world that two countries that were at odds can under the same type of pressure from the same country can realise and understand that it is better economically to have some type of agreement that reduces the power of that single countries action against both .
Rationality prevales against irrational behavior it requires adult thought patterns sadly lacking in the oppressive country.