India resumes visas for Chinese tourists amid thawing ties

India has resumed issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals after a five-year gap as the two countries continue to explore ways to mend their strained relationship.

The Indian embassy in Beijing made the announcement on Wednesday via the Chinese social media app Weibo, the state-owned Global Times newspaper reported.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the development was a “positive move” and added that China was willing to work with India to improve the “facilitation of people-to-people exchanges”.

India suspended visas to China, restricted investments and banned several Chinese apps after the 2020 military clashes in Galwan Valley killed at least 20 Indian soldiers.

The site of the clash was on the de facto border - the Line of Actual Control or LAC - between the two countries.

India and China share a border that is more than 3,440km (2,100 miles) long and have overlapping territorial claims.

The two countries had suspended flights and visa services to each other during the pandemic and they remained halted as political tensions skyrocketed in the summer of 2020 following the clash.

But relations have gradually improved. From 2022, China began resuming visa services for Indians and there has been a further upswing since a round of high-level talks between the two sides last year.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Brics summit in Russia last year, where the two leaders agreed to boost communication to resolve conflicts and improve ties.

In June, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sun Weidong in Delhi, where the two discussed resuming direct flights, sharing data on transnational rivers and improving “people-centric engagements”.

This year between January and April, China issued 85,000 visas to Indians.

In their Weibo post on Wednesday, the Indian embassy said Chinese citizens could begin applying for tourist visas from 24 July in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, in South China’s Guangdong Province.

The move comes ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence summit, set to be held in China in August.

Media reports have speculated that Modi may attend the summit. If he does, it will be his first visit to the country since the 2020 clashes.

Source: BBC

- Agencies