India and China have agreed to set up an expert group to explore early boundary delimitation and resume direct flights, marking a major thaw in bilateral ties. This comes after China Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s meetings with EAM Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval and finally PM Narendra Modi.
India and China have agreed to resume direct flights at the earliest and expand the scale of Indian pilgrimage to Mt Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, marking a significant thaw in bilateral ties. The announcement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Prime Minister’s Office in Delhi today. PM Modi asked Wang Yi to convey his cordial greetings to President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, and expressed his great anticipation for attending the… pic.twitter.com/KSTtFLnhFw
— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2025
“The two sides spoke positively of the progress made in the implementation of the important leader-level consensus in Kazan. The two sides shared the view that peace and tranquillity has been maintained in the India-China border areas since the 23rd SR Talks. They reiterated the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas to promote overall development of the India-China bilateral relationship,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
Expert Group For Boundary Settlement
An agreement was also reached to take a political perspective of the overall relationship while seeking a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable framework” for settlement of the boundary question, in line with the 2005 Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question.