China Has Agreed to Re-Open Border Trade Routes With India, Says Himachal Pradesh Govt
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: China has agreed, in principle, to re-open border trade through the three designated trading points with India – Lipulekh Pass, Shipki-La and Nathu-La – a statement issued by the Himachal Pradesh government has said.
Trade through the route was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a Press Trust of India report stated.
The Himachal Pradesh government statement, issued on August 24, gave the credit to chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu for the development, saying that he had written to the central government, urging revival of the historic Indo-Tibetan trade route.
“Acting on this, the Union Government formally took up the matter with China, leading to a consensus to restart the trade. The state government would now take this matter with the Union Commerce Ministry for completing the codal formalities,” reported The Tribune.
The news report underlined that the Himachal Pradesh government had been making efforts to resume trade with China through Shipki-La in Kinnaur district.
“The Chief Minister had emphasised that Shipki-La, once an offshoot of the legendary Silk Route and formalised as a border trade point under the India-China bilateral agreement of 1994, played a vital role in trans-Himalayan economic and cultural exchanges,” the PTI report quoted from the statement.
“The Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi, who recently was on a visit to India, held meeting with Union External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar to discuss various bilateral issues, and both the ministers agreed in principle during this meeting to the proposal of resuming trade between the two nations, the statement said.
The news reports also said that India and China have also “agreed to continue and further expand the scale of the Indian pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, Gang Renpoche and Lake Manasarovar from 2026.”
Seeking resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Shipki-La, the statement said that the state Congress government “had highlighted that the Shipki-La route, connecting via Gartok towards Darchen and Mansarovar, is comparatively shorter on the Tibetan side.”
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