India and China agreed to resume direct flights between the two countries after a nearly five-year halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and political tensions.
India’s Foreign Ministry said it had reached an agreement with China “in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries” after Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to Beijing on Jan. 27.
“The relevant technical authorities on the two sides will meet and negotiate an updated framework for this purpose at an early date,” the ministry said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Jan. 28 that “the two sides agreed to resume direct flights between the Chinese mainland and India, support the competent authorities of the two countries to coordinate and push it forward, and take measures to facilitate personnel flows and exchanges of resident journalists.”
China and India had 539 scheduled direct flights every month in 2019. They were halted in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and have never resumed due to the rising tension between the nations over territorial disputes, especially the skirmish between Chinese and Indian troops in Galwan Valley along the China-India border.
Resuming direct flights with India shows that the Chinese Communist Regime intends to ease relations with the outside world to avoid international isolation, Shen Ming-shih, director of the Division of National Security Research at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told The Epoch Times on Jan. 28.
“It’s softening attitude a little towards neighboring countries, especially those that it has conflicts with, such as Japan, India, and Taiwan. Because given the current situation within the CCP, it is not the best time for external expansion or conflict,” he said.
On the Indian side, Shen said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s current foreign policy is not as tough as before towards China, and that might be because his party failed to win a majority in last year’s election. Also, “this is Modi’s last term. His focus is on India’s economic development,” Shen said of India’s willingness to ease relations with the Chinese regime.
In terms of geopolitics, Shen said that India is playing a balancing role in South Asia, “but it will not fully cooperate with the United States to contain China. “However, India is not abandoning or reducing the deployment of troops on the border with China,” he said.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump and Modi had a phone conversation on Jan. 27.
The White House said in a statement that “both leaders emphasized their commitment to advancing their countries’ strategic partnership and the Indo-Pacific Quad partnership,” which also includes Japan and Australia.
Trump “emphasized the importance of India increasing its procurement of American-made security equipment and moving toward a fair bilateral trading relationship,” said the statement.
Modi said the two countries will work together “towards global peace, prosperity, and security.”
India may also want to import more weapons systems from the United States, Shen said. “I think India still has its tradition of ‘non-alignment' or strategic autonomy. So it basically still wants to adopt the strategy of balancing between the United States and China,” he said.
Feng Chongyi, a China studies professor at the University of Technology Sydney, told The Epoch Times on Jan. 28 that India is watching the United States’ China policy.
“India is in the same situation. If the United States softens its stance and wants to make a deal with China, you make a deal, and I will make a deal too,” Feng said.
“India and other countries are testing and softening their attitudes and positions towards China.
“India is wavering between the two sides; neither wants to offend China or the United States, and they want to get benefits from both sides. Many countries have this attitude and approach.”