India and China are set to resume direct flights as soon as next month, Bloomberg reported citing officials in the know. The move comes days ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China on 28 August for the SCO Summit in Tianjin.
According to the Bloomberg report citing officials, India’s civil aviation authorities have instructed domestic carriers, such as Air India and IndiGo, to prepare flights to China at short notice.
An official announcement could be made during or shortly after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin later this month, the report added.
Narendra Modi is scheduled to travel to Tianjin, China, on 28 August to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, marking his first visit to the country in several years.
The move to resume direct flights between India and China comes amid tentative signs of a thaw in bilateral relations between Delhi and Beijing. Ties hit a low point in June 2020 after deadly border clashes in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which killed 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops.
