India, China are in close communication for resumption of flights and to bring back the first group of Indian students to China: Chinese MFA
China on Friday said, the competent authorities of India and China are in close communication for the resumption of flights and to bring back the first group of Indian students to China at an early date. More than 20000 Indian students have been waiting to return to their universities in China for more than two years as they came to India in different phases since the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan in early 2020 and could not return as China put severe restrictions on international travel.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin in response to a question on return of Indian students and resumption of direct flight between India and China said on Thursday, recently we have seen positive progress on Indian student’s return to China. Resuming direct flights between China and India is good for communication and cooperation between both sides and for people to people exchanges and meet both sides’ interests. We hope that Indian side can work together with China to promote an early resumption of direct flights and ensure safe and orderly return and travel between the two peoples, Wang said at the daily press briefing in Beijing.
China has still imposed many COVID related restrictions on international travel to China especially from India and both countries do not have a direct flight at the moment. Even though China has started the visa for Indians for the purpose of family reunion and other Indian professionals, but lack of direct flights is a big dampener in travel, along with high cost of connecting flights and quarantine hotels and hassle of getting green health code in transit countries.
China has not yet made any announcement about resuming the student visa to more than 20000 Indian students who are waiting for their return to their universities in China. Indian side has months ago handed over to the Chinese side a list of Indian students who are willing to return to China, however, there is no response so far from Chinese side on the matter. Meanwhile, China has allowed few batches of students from Pakistan and Sri Lanka to return.
On Thursday, SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming said that people to people cooperation is an important area under the SCO framework and member states are very proactive and positive and implemented a large amount of cooperation in cultures. He also commended Kazakhstan for implementing visa free policies for tourists from India and other countries. He also lauded Uzbekistan for visa facilitation policies to some SCO members. He said the visa arrangement is not in the portfolio of SCO.
It’s a bilateral arrangement between member states, he said and hoped that member states can make such bilateral arrangements. SCO countries have rich resources, a big market and huge potential for tourism development, he said, adding that the largest difficulty at present is COVID-19.
