Direct flights have restarted, but India-China ties will remain fragile until border is settled

On October 26, India and China resumed direct flights, which had been suspended following the outbreak of the Covid pandemic and remained so, with the Galwan clashes in 2020 freezing bilateral relations to a large extent.

Now, the Indian carrier IndiGo has started direct flights to the Chinese city of Guangzhou. China Eastern Airlines, too, has announced that it will launch a direct flight between Shanghai and Delhi from November 9, operating three times a week. According to Qin Yong, a senior Chinese consular official, the resumption of direct flights marked “a very important day for the India–China relationship”. The Indian government has said that this will help enhance “people-to-people” contact and support the normalisation of ties. Air India, too, is set to start flights to China