Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, direct India-China flights to resume soon: MEA

New Delhi/Beijing,

India and China have decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the summer of 2025, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced following Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing.

The meeting, held under the Foreign Secretary-Vice Foreign Minister mechanism, reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations comprehensively and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to stabilize and rebuild ties, as agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Kazan in October. According to the MEA, the relevant mechanism will discuss further the modalities for Yatra as per the existing agreements. Both sides also agreed, in principle, to resume direct air services between the two countries with the relevant technical authorities on the two sides to negotiate an updated framework for the purpose at an early date. “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,” read a statement issued by the MEA.

With 2025 being the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China, it was decided by both sides to “redouble” public diplomacy efforts to create better awareness about each other and restore mutual trust and confidence among the public. Taking stock of the extant mechanisms for functional exchanges, both sides will also conduct a number of commemorative activities to mark the anniversary. “It was agreed to resume these dialogues step by step and to utilise them to address each other’s priority areas of interest and concern. Specific concerns in the economic and trade areas were discussed with a view to resolving these issues and promoting long-term policy transparency and predictability,” the MEA stated.