India has announced that it will resume issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals starting this week – a move that comes as part of efforts to repair bilateral ties that came under severe strain following the 2020 military clashes in Galwan Valley.
India had suspended tourist visas to Chinese nationals five years ago largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the restrictions continued in view of the eastern Ladakh border row.
The Indian embassy in Beijing said Chinese nationals will be able to apply for tourist visas from Thursday, PTI reported.
In a notification, it also explained the procedures required to apply for visas as well as documents required to be submitted at respective Indian visa application centres in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, PTI reported.
The China Foreign Ministry has welcomed India`s decision, stating that it is a positive move to facilitate cross-border travel.
“It is a positive move,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in a media briefing in Beijing responding to 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’s decision 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 to attend a conclave of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation during which he held talks with Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng and conveyed that continued normalisation of bilateral ties can lead to mutually beneficial outcomes.
In the past few months, the neighbours have taken a number of steps to repair the bilateral ties that had severely nosedived following the deadly clashes between the two militaries in June 2020.
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”.
In June, the two sides resumed the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra after a gap of nearly five years.
(With PTI inputs)