India and China have agreed to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in 2025, according to a press release by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Beijing on January 26-27 to attend a meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Foreign Minister mechanism between India and China on January 27.
“As agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Kazan in October, both sides comprehensively reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations and agreed to take people-centric measures to stabilize and rebuild ties,” the release stated.
The statement further mentioned, “In this context, the two sides have decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the summer of 2025. The relevant mechanism will discuss the modalities for this resumption in line with existing agreements. They also agreed to hold an early meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism to discuss the resumption of the provision of hydrological data and other forms of cooperation regarding trans-border rivers.”
Kailash Mansarovar is believed to be the sacred abode of Lord Shiva. The Yatra, which enables Indian pilgrims to visit the sacred Kailash Mansarovar region in Tibet, has been suspended for the past few years.
The two sides have also agreed “to take appropriate measures to further promote and facilitate people-to-people exchanges, including media and think-tank interactions. They agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries; the relevant technical authorities on the two sides will meet and negotiate an updated framework for this purpose at an early date,” the statement said.
India-China to resume direct flights
The MEA in a statement also confirmed that India and China have decided to reinstate direct air services between the two nations. The statement also highlighted the consensus reached between the two sides during the talks which included the resumption of direct flights and a meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism to discuss the resumption of the provision of sharing hydrological data pertaining to trans-border rivers.