London: With the urgent issue of troop disengagement along the border now largely resolved, India has initiated discussions with China to establish a more stable, predictable, and positive course, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Resumption of pilgrimages to religious sites under China's control, direct flights between the two countries, and exchange of journalists are under discussion, he said on Wednesday during a conversation on India's rise and role in the world at Chatham House, the British think tank.
India and China are exploring resolutions to pending issues in additional areas, including the management of shared rivers, according to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. The mechanism for addressing transborder river issues, which had been dormant since 2020 due to strained relations, is now being revived.
Relations between India and China were severely disrupted in 2020 when Chinese forces clashed with Indian troops in the Galwan Valley area along the Line of Actual Control, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said. The confrontation resulted in the loss of around 20 Indian soldiers and several Chinese troops, sparking a tense standoff and sporadic skirmishes.
Those were the first deadly border clashes between India and China in 45 years, but last year, the two countries have since taken steps to repair their strained ties.
"In October 2024, we were able to resolve many of the urgent issues, the pending issues pertaining to that, what we call disengagement of troops who had been deployed upfront," EAM Jaishankar said.
Following the resolution of the border issues, high-level diplomatic engagements between India and China have resumed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, last year, and he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in South Africa last month during a BRICS meeting, Jaishankar revealed.
India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri have paid visits to China, he said.
On October 21, 2024, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced in Delhi that India and China had finalised an agreement after several weeks of intense negotiations and is expected to resolve the issues that arose in 2020.
(inputs from IANS)