India and China have agreed to resume direct flights between the two countries after nearly five years, the latest thaw between the two Asian giants that until recently were on war-footing over a deadly border dispute.
The rapprochement also included agreements on improving access to journalists from both sides and facilitating pilgrimages to a Hindu holy site in Tibet. They were announced by both sides on Monday, after India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, visited Beijing.
The two nations have made substantial progress in recent months to restore some normalcy in ties. Their relationship had plunged to its worst in decades following an incursion by Chinese soldiers into the Indian side of a disputed border in 2020. The skirmishes left soldiers dead on both sides.
In October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of a summit in Russia. It was the first time the two leaders had sat down for proper talks in five years. That conversation was made possible by more than two dozen rounds of negotiations between military leaders and diplomats over disengaging their forces along the border high in the Himalayas.
Mr. Misri’s trip to Beijing was to follow up over a series of “people-centric steps to stabilize and rebuild ties,” India’s foreign ministry said in a statement after the visit.
The ministry added that officials from the two sides would meet to discuss the technical details of resuming flights, which have remained suspended since the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020. Flights to Hong Kong resumed after the pandemic lockdowns eased, but those to mainland China did not because of the tension between the two countries.
In his meeting with Mr. Misri, Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, called on both sides to “seize the opportunity, meet each other halfway” in the hopes of ending “mutual suspicion, mutual alienation and mutual attrition,” according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.
The Chinese aggression on the Indian border and the escalating tensions and trade war between Beijing and Washington intensified a debate over whether India could position itself as a counterweight to China. American officials also expressed hope that India, which overtook China as the world’s most populous nation, could help in diversifying the global supply chains that have been heavily dependent on Chinese manufacturing.
The border skirmishes injected new urgency into India’s efforts to modernize its lagging security forces, in part by expanding defense and technology ties with the United States. But New Delhi has remained cautious, walking a tightrope to avoid being used as a pawn in the U.S.-China conflict, analysts say.
India’s stance is informed by its deep vulnerability against the much larger economic and military power at the border, analysts say, as well as a historic mistrust of the U.S. that partially lingers from the Cold War. That sense is only compounded with the unpredictability of President Trump, known for his transactional approach to foreign policy and his penchant for deals that could forget the plight of allies.
India’s potential as an industrial power still remains largely unmet. Beyond some recent success stories in technology, such as the expansion in iPhone manufacturing in India or investments in future chip making, the country has struggled to significantly expand manufacturing.
China watchers have pointed out that this is also an area where India’s aspirations remain vulnerable to China, the source for machinery and raw material of many of India’s industries. In its anxiety that India is being groomed as a kind of replacement, China has been restricting exports of some of that machinery to India.
Berry Wang contributed reporting from Hong Kong.
