Jaishankar on ties with China: 'Some positive movement; issues still persist'

S Jaishankar at News18's Rising Bharat Summit.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishnakar on Wedensday said India is engaging with China to improve relationships.

While speaking during the “New World Order” session at Rising Bharat Summit 2025, the minister said  India is discussing with China to resume flights and the Mansarovar Yatra.  "There has been some positive movement," he said.  However, he said "issues still persist".

Moneycontrol had last month reported that India and China are discussing the resumption of direct flights between the two countries from May ahead of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra this summer.

In January, the two sides agreed to resume direct flights and the pilgrimage after five years, looking to build on the thaw in ties following the disengagement in Eastern Ladakh after a four-year standoff in the border area.

The two governments are in the process of finalising a bilateral agreement for flight operations but discussions are on with IndiGo, Air India and Tibet Airlines for flights from India to Lhasa Gonggar Airport.

China's unilateral decision to alter the status quo in eastern Ladakh  led to a military clash followed by a standoff with India in 2020. Anti-China sentiment surged across the nation, impacting everything from people-to-people ties, business and bilateral ties, trade, technology, visas, and even air travel.

In October 2024, after dozens of rounds of talks, both at the diplomatic and military levels, that the two countries reached an agreement - to return to the status quo in place before 2020.

Jaishankar recently also acknowledged that India and China will continue to have issues in the "foreseeable future", but said that "there are ways of addressing them" without getting into a conflict.

"We know that, between India and China, at least in the foreseeable future, there will be issues, but there are ways of addressing those issues, and what happened in 2020 was not the way,"  Jaishankar said in a conversation with non-profit Asia Society.

Last week, India and China started celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations, with the leaders of the two neighbouring nations exchanging greetings and diplomats cutting cakes together.

The military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh ended five months ago with the two neighboring countries and home to one-third of the population of world moving towards creating a more stable, predictable and friendly bilateral relationship.