Much more awaits restoration between China and India beyond direct flights: Global Times.
By Global Times 10/27/25
The first batch of passengers taking the resumed China-India direct flight after a five-year hiatus check in their luggage and prepare to depart for Guangzhou on October 26, 2025. Photo: Courtesy of Indigo
On Monday, a fully booked flight from Kolkata, India, landed in Guangzhou, China, marking the official resumption of direct air services between the two countries after a suspension of more than five years. As the world's two most populous nations and neighbors, it is truly baffling that direct flights have been suspended for over five years. The inaugural flight was described by AFP as two Asian giants "cautiously rebuilding relations," while Bloomberg referred to it as "the latest sign of warming ties between two of the world's biggest economies." The Indian government stated that the resumption of flights will boost "people-to-people contact" and aid the "gradual normalization of bilateral exchanges." Indeed, the significance of this resumption lies not only in the reopening of air routes, but also in the two sides taking a necessary step toward normalizing relations.In recent times, China-India relations have undergone a key shift from turbulence to improvement. The COVID-19 pandemic shock, border frictions, trade fluctuations and the stagnation of personnel exchanges once led to a serious underestimation of the potential for cooperation between the two countries. The resumption of direct flights demonstrates the two sides' earnest efforts to implement the important consensus reached during the two leaders' meeting in Tianjin this August. During that meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized that China and India should "become good-neighborly friends and partners that help each other succeed" and that a "cooperative pas de deux of the dragon and the elephant" should be the right choice for the two countries. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded that India and China are "partners, not rivals" and that "the consensus between the two countries far outweighs their disagreement." It is precisely this shared understanding that has helped China-India relations regain their sense of direction from a strategic and long-term perspective.
Guided by head-of-state diplomacy, China-India relations have entered a strategic window of sustained warming. Last month, India's imports from China rose by more than 16 percent year-on-year, while its exports to China surged by around 34 percent. During last week's Diwali celebrations, soldiers from both countries exchanged sweets at multiple points along the Line of Actual Control. Against this backdrop, the resumption of direct flights between China and India came as no surprise. The deeper driving force behind this development lies in the strong intrinsic demand for economic and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
Of course, restoring direct flights is only the first step toward getting China-India relations back on track. There are still many areas of exchange that need to be revived. Over the past five years, various aspects of China-India relations, including visas, academic exchange, cultural engagement, and border trade, have been severely affected or even "frozen." Many channels between the two sides still await normalization. The e-visa channel for Chinese travelers to India remains suspended, very few Chinese students successfully obtain Indian visas, and several bottlenecks in border trade have yet to be cleared. It can be said that currently, China is essentially "unilaterally opening up" to India, while India has only opened a very small "seam of the door" to China. Considering the two countries' combined market size of over 2.8 billion people and demand for exchanges, bilateral engagement still has significant room for growth.
For years, India's China policy has been constrained by certain cognitive biases. Some Indian politicians stubbornly view China as a "main competitor" or even an "imaginary adversary," allowing anxiety over a "zero-sum game" to dominate their policy mind-set, preventing a pragmatic and rational improvement in relations with China.
As a major power with a strong concept of strategic autonomy, India also needs to break free from the role imposed on it by the West in the "Indo-Pacific chess game." One fact is that the recent resistance from New Delhi against Washington's high tariff policies has been significantly supported by contributions from neighboring countries toward its trade diversification.
Both China and India adhere to an independent diplomatic philosophy and are unwilling to be held hostage by any third party. Improving ties with China should be a self-determined choice that aligns with India's national interests. Easing personnel exchanges is fundamentally a mutually beneficial initiative that directly serves the growing needs of exchanges among entrepreneurs, academics, and cultural figures from both countries, facilitating interactions between their peoples and benefiting various communities. Amid the global turbulence and sluggish economic recovery, both China and India are at a critical stage of development and revitalization, serving as important representatives of the Global South and significant forces in promoting economic globalization and the multipolarity of the world. China and India should focus on development as the greatest common denominator, mutually supporting, promoting, and achieving each other's goals. They should contribute more to maintaining peace and prosperity in Asia and the world.
Whether the resumption of direct flights between China and India can carve out a "new trajectory" for bilateral relations depends largely on whether India can move past the internal and external factors that have disrupted bilateral ties for some time. It is essential for India to truly view and handle China-India relations from a strategic and long-term perspective. Both China and India possess a rich civilization and strong developmental momentum, and people hope to see a "cooperative pas de deux of the dragon and the elephant" rather than a "conflict between the dragon and the elephant." The resumption of direct flights not only marks a beginning, but it also serves as a reminder that, beyond flights, there is much more that should be restored between China and India.