India and China
Agree to Resume Direct Flights After Nearly Five Years
It
was the latest thaw in relations between the two countries, whose troops were
involved in deadly skirmishes high in the Himalayas in 2020.
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.