India and China are making fast progress in finalizing the necessary arrangements to resume the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra, which is likely to start soon, as announced by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday.
"We will soon issue a public notice for the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra, and it's likely to resume shortly," announced Randhir Jaiswal, MEA spokesperson, at a routine media briefing in New Delhi on Thursday.
The Kailash Manasarovar Yatra has remained suspended since 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in the suspension of the Yatra by the Chinese government. Before that, the Indian government had been conducting the pilgrimage via two main routes—Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand (since 1981) and Nathu La Pass in Sikkim (since 2015)—every year between June and September.
After a meeting under the Foreign Secretary-Vice Foreign Minister mechanism in January this year, both nations had indicated their intention to resume the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra by the summer of 2025.
This session, coordinated by Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, thoroughly evaluated India-China bilateral relationships and centered its attention on human-centric actions towards stabilizing and strengthening relationships as per discussions among Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their sit-down meeting at Kazan last October 2024.
During that time, the MEA had announced that further talks would be carried out in order to finalize the modalities for the Yatra, under the current agreements between the two countries.
Moreover, both sides confirmed the resumption of direct air services and authorized their technical authorities to negotiate a new framework for the same.
Last month, after official talks between the Foreign Ministries of India and China in Beijing, it was established that efforts are still on to finalize the arrangements for the resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra.
Gourangalal Das, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the MEA, had a consultative meeting with Liu Jinsong, Director General of the Department of Asian Affairs in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where both sides took stock of the steps taken to follow up on the strategic directions outlined in the January 2025 meeting between the Indian Foreign Secretary and the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister with a view to stabilizing and rebuilding relations.
"Then they noted the recent improvements in bilateral ties following the meetings between leaders of India and China in October 2024. Meanwhile, Foreign Ministers have had their two meetings and the Special Representatives dealing with the India-China boundary question had their 23rd meeting. Such high-level gatherings gave strategic directions to consolidate and further enhance the relationship," read the MEA release.
The two sides have agreed to carry forward the effort to promote people-to-people exchanges, such as reviving direct flights, media and think-tank exchanges, and celebrating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations. They also made greater progress in bringing finality on modalities of resumption of Kailash Manasarovar Yatra in 2025," said the statement.".
In addition, the MEA stressed that both countries discussed their annual plans for the coming year with a view to the gradual resumption of dialogue mechanisms to tackle common priorities and pursue a more stable and predictable course of bilateral relations.
Read also| Melinda Gates Labels Divorce from Bill Gates 'Necessary'; A Look at Both Perspectives
Read also| White House Releases Health Report Declaring 78-Year-Old Trump Fit to Serve as President
