New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI) India and China are making preparations to resume the annual Kailash Mansarovar Yatra soon besides looking at restarting direct flights as part of broader efforts to normalise the bilateral ties that came under severe strain following the border row in eastern Ladakh.

“We will soon issue a notice for the public regarding the Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra. There is a possibility of the yatra starting soon,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.

The pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region and direct flights between the two countries have been suspended since 2020 in view of the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

“The yatra will happen this year and we are making preparations. More information will be put out for the public soon,” Jaiswal said.

“We are taking forward talks with China on different issues and there is an expectation that the Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra will start soon,” he said.

It is learnt that the two sides may announce resumption of the Yatra within next few weeks.

India and China have been looking at resuming the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and restarting the flight operations as part of efforts to improve ties after the two countries completed disengagement of troops at the two remaining friction points of Demchok and Depsang under the framework of a pact sealed in October last year.

Jaiswal said both India and China have agreed in-principle to resume flight services between the two sides as well and that relevant modalities are being worked out.

“The technical teams on both sides are looking into technical arrangements for the flight services to resume. The two civil aviation authorities have met and are discussing the relevant modalities, including the updated framework,” he said.

On India-China trade ties, Jaiswal said the two sides had agreed during Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to China in January to resume “extant dialogue mechanisms for functional exchanges in a step-by-step manner to address each other’s priority areas of interest and concern”.

“Specific concerns in the economic and trade areas, including India’s trade deficit, will be discussed through relevant mechanisms with a view to resolving these issues and promoting long-term policy transparency and predictability,” Jaiswal said.

Last month, India and China explored ways to rebuild ties and agreed to initiate efforts to promote people-to-people exchanges, including arrangements for resumption of direct flights as well as Kailash Mansarovar Yatra this year.

In a meeting in Beijing, the two sides also discussed resumption of dialogue mechanisms in a “step-by-step” manner to utilize them to address each other’s priority areas of interest and concern and move the relations on to a “more stable and predictable path”.

The relations between the two countries came under severe strain following the Galwan Valley clashes in 2020.

The meeting in Beijing was held between Gourangalal Das, the joint secretary in the MEA’s East Asia division, and Liu Jinsong, the director general at the Chinese foreign ministry’s department of Asian affairs.

There have been series of meetings between India and China following the disengagement of troops in Depsang and Demchok.

In December, NSA Doval travelled to Beijing and held talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi under the framework of Special Representatives (SR) dialogue on the boundary question.

The decision to revive the SR mechanism and other such dialogue formats was taken at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan on October 23 last year.

The Modi-Xi meeting came two days after India and China firmed up a disengagement pact for Depsang and Demchok, the last two friction points in eastern Ladakh.

In January, Foreign Secretary Misri visited Beijing and held talks with his Chinese counterpart Sun Weidong.

In the meeting, the two sides decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to “stabilise and rebuild” ties. PTI MPB KVK KVK