London

Having resolved the urgent issues of troop disengagement along the border, India is discussing with China steps to put the relationship on a more predictable and positive course, according to External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar.

Resumption of pilgrimages to religious sites under China's control, direct flights between the two countries, and exchange of journalists are under discussion, he said on Wednesday during a conversation on India's rise and role in the world at Chatham House, the British think-tank.

The two countries are also looking at resolving issues in other areas like shared rivers, EAM Jaishankar said.. The mechanism for dealing with trans-border rivers had stopped to meet because of the disruption in relations after 2020. "We are looking at this package (and) people tasked with that mandate are dealing with each other," he said.

"It's hard, you know," he said. "Obviously, we would like to see it done, sooner rather than later. And then we will see what happens." The relations between the two giant neighbours was disrupted by China's actions along the Line of Actual Control in 2020, EAM Jaishankar said.

Chinese forces attacked Indian troops in the Galwan Valley area and about 20 Indian soldiers and several Chinese were killed in the clashes, leading to a tense standoff and sporadic skirmishes. Those were the first deadly border confrontations in 45 years and last year the two countries took steps to repair their ties.

"In October 2024, we were able to resolve many of the urgent issues, the pending issues pertaining to that, what we call disengagement of troops who had been deployed upfront," EAM Jaishankar said. Once that was resolved, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi and China's President XI Jinping met in Kazan in Russia on the sidelines of the BRICS summit last year and he met Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month in South Africa during a BRICS meeting, EAM Jaishankar said.

India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri have visited China, he added. On October 21 last year, Foreign Secretary Misri said in Delhi that an agreement had been finalised between India and China following negotiations over the past several weeks and that it would lead to a resolution of the issues that arose in 2020.