Indian resumes visas for Chinese tourists after five-year gap
The site of the clash was on the de facto border - the Line of Actual Control or LAC - between the two countries. India and China share a border that is more than 3,440km (2,100 miles) long and have overlapping territorial claims.The two countries had suspended flights and visa services to each other during the pandemic and they remained halted as political tensions skyrocketed in the summer of 2020 following the clash.But relations have gradually improved. From 2022, China began resuming visa services for Indians and there has been a further upswing since a round of high-level talks between the two sides last year.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Brics summit in Russia last year, where the two leaders agreed to boost communication to resolve conflicts and improve ties.In June, India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met China's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sun Weidong in Delhi, where the two discussed resuming direct flights, sharing data on transnational rivers and improving "people-centric engagements".This year between January and April, China issued 85,000 visas to Indians.In their Weibo post on Wednesday, the Indian embassy said Chinese citizens could begin applying for tourist visas from 24 July in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, in South China's Guangdong Province.The move comes ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence summit, set to be held in China in August.Media reports have speculated that Modi may attend the summit. If he does, it will be his first visit to the country since the 2020 clashes.
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