Thaw in China-India ties is real, but don’t call it reconciliation

Six years after the Ladakh crisis erupted in May 2020, triggering the worst military confrontation between India and China in decades, the two countries are attempting something that once seemed improbable: a diplomatic reset.

The latest indication came late last month when officials met in Beijing for the 35th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs. The message emerging from the talks was positive. The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining peace along the Line of Actual Control while gradually rebuilding broader ties.

The thaw is increasingly visible. The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra – a sacred Hindu pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in Tibet – resumed after a five-year hiatus last year. Direct flights between India and China have also been restored. Dialogue on transboundary rivers has restarted, while officials are exploring ways to ease restrictions that have constrained business, tourism and people-to-people exchanges since relations plunged into crisis in 2020.