India and China plan to resume direct flights between some cities after a five-year hiatus due to the beginning of a easing of relations between the two countries, the Associated Press reports, citing Indian authorities.
Direct flights between the two countries were suspended in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and have not resumed due to ongoing border tensions between Beijing and New Delhi.
Flights between the aforementioned cities will resume at the end of October, pending the decisions of commercial carriers, the Indian Embassy in China announced in a WeChat post. The resumption of flights is part of the Indian government’s “approach to gradually normalizing relations between India and China,” the embassy added.
India’s largest airline, IndiGo, announced on Thursday that it will resume flights from Kolkata, India, to Guangzhou, China, starting October 26.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China last month for the first time in seven years to attend a regional security forum as part of efforts to normalize relations between the two countries.
Relations between China and India deteriorated sharply in 2020 following clashes along the disputed Himalayan border.
The worst violence in decades left four Chinese and 20 Indian military personnel dead, leading to a freeze in high-level political contacts.