India and China to resume direct flights after a 5-year suspension

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BEIJING (AP) — India and China plan to resume direct flights between some of their cities after a five-year suspension as the relations between the two countries begin to thaw, Indian authorities announced Thursday.

Direct flights between the two countries were suspended during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and did not resume as Beijing and New Delhi engaged in prolonged border tensions.

Flights between designated cities will resume by late October subject to commercial carriers’ decisions, India’s embassy to China said in a post on social media platform WeChat.

The resumption is part of the Indian government’s “approach towards gradual normalization of relations between India and China,” the embassy added.

India’s largest carrier IndiGo announced Thursday it would resume flights from Kolkata, India, to Guangzhou, China, beginning Oct. 26.

The resumption comes after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China last month for the first time in seven years to attend a regional security forum, which was part of efforts by the two countries to normalize ties.

Relations between China and India plummeted in 2020 after security forces clashed along a disputed border in the Himalayan mountains. Four Chinese soldiers and 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the worst violence in decades, freezing high-level political engagements.