India has announced resuming issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals from this week, a move that comes as part of efforts to repair bilateral ties that came under severe strain following the military clashes in Galwan Valley.
India had suspended issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals in 2020 largely due to Covid-19 pandemic but the restrictions continued in view of the eastern Ladakh border row.
The Indian embassy in Beijing said Chinese nationals may apply for tourist visas from Thursday, July 24.
In a notification, it also explained the required procedures to apply for the visas as well as documents required to be submitted at respective Indian visa application centres in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Beijing hails India’s ‘positive move’
China Foreign Ministry has welcomed India’s decision to open the tourists’ visas saying it is a positive move to facilitate cross-border travel.
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“It is a positive move”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in a media briefing here answering a question on India’s decision.
“Making cross border travel easier serves the interests of all parties. China stands ready maintain communication and coordination with India to keep facilitating people to people exchanges between the two countries”, he said.
India-China restoring relations
The decision by the Indian embassy to resume the tourist visas came nearly a week-and-half after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held extensive talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing.
Jaishankar visited China on July 14-15 primarily to attend a conclave of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The external affairs minister also held talks with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and conveyed to him that continued normalisation of bilateral ties can lead to mutually beneficial outcomes.
In the last few months, India and China have initiated a number of measures to repair the bilateral ties that had severely nosedived following the deadly clashes between the two militaries in June 2020.
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The efforts to normalise the relations were initiated after the Indian and Chinese militaries ended their face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in October last year.
In his opening remarks at the meeting with Wang, Jaishankar said the bilateral relationship requires both sides taking a “far-seeing approach”.
Last month, the two sides resumed the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra after a gap of nearly five years.
