Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong on Sunday said that he hoped the direct flights between both the nations would resume soon, highlighting how everyone he has met in India is expecting the same.
Direct flights between India and China were halted after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 border clashes in Galwan Valley. Prior to the suspension, several airlines operated dozens of non-stop flights every week connecting cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Kunming with New Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata.
“I know that everybody in India, everybody I met in India is expecting direct flights between the two countries. I just hope that the resumption of flights will be taken soon,” he said.
VIDEO | Xu Feihong (@China_Amb_India), Chinese Ambassador to India, says, “I know that everybody in India, everybody I met in India is expecting direct flights between the two countries. I just hope that the resumption of flights will be taken soon.”
(Full video available on PTI… pic.twitter.com/7INalca1QW
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 8, 2025
He further spoke about the relations between India and China and how a lot of work needs to be done by both sides to imporve them. The ambassador also pointed out that both President Xi Jinping and PM Modi made “important consensus” to develop good relations.
“China and India have been so long civilisations. We have so close cultural and historical interactions. So, why shouldn’t we have good relations in the coming years? Of course, a lot of work needs to be done by both sides; not only the governments, but also the think tanks, students, universities,” he said.
“Everybody from India and China should make their own efforts to improve the relations. In fact, the leaders of the two countries – Chinese President Xi Jinping and PM Modi – had to make very important consensus to promote, develop good relations between China and India,” Feihong added.
According to news agency Reuters, both nations held one round of talks on resumption of direct flights last month, but did not fix any date yet. “The civil aviation ministry and our counterpart in China have had one round of meetings,” Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam said at a conference organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce in New Delhi.
“There were still some issues to resolve,” he added, without going into detail.
India-China relations turned frosty after clash broke out between the troops in June 2020 along their border in the Himalayas, which claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese. This led India to impose restrictions on Chinese companies investing in India and banning several popular apps.
