China welcomes India's decision to expedite business visas for Chinese

Beijing: China on Friday welcomed India's move to speed up approval of business visas to Chinese professionals visiting the country for short periods, describing it as a "positive" step.

"We've noted this positive move," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a media briefing here while replying to a question on reports that India will remove the red tape to speed up issuance of business visas to Chinese business professionals.

Guo said that easing cross-border travel "serves the common interests of all parties".

"China will maintain communication and consultation with India to further facilitate people-to-people exchange," he said.

The move was expected to give a fillip to trade and investment relations between the two countries, facilitating travel for Chinese businessmen to visit India.

In July, India resumed issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals after a gap of over five years, in a major move to normalise relations between the two countries.

China also started issuing visas to Indian tourists, including group tourists.

The resumption of tourist visas was regarded as a significant move, as the two countries started the normalisation process after a freeze in bilateral ties since the military standoff at Eastern Ladakh in April 2020.

The suspension of all tourist and e-visas began with the COVID-19 pandemic and continued thereafter due to the Ladakh standoff.

The Ladakh standoff led to a freeze in relations between India and China. The relations were revived after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, last year.

The two leaders met again in Tianjin this year on the sidelines of the SCO summit in August, after which the first batch of Indian pilgrims visited Kailash Manasarovar in Tibet, followed by the resumption of flights connecting various cities in both countries after over five years.