An Air China Airbus A330 – credit: Can Pac Swire, CC 2.0. Flickr

There are few things as important for global human flourishing as keeping the two most populous nations, which happen to be two of the 5 largest national manufacturers, at peace.

That’s exactly what foreign ministry delegations from India and China have worked towards for a number of months, culminating in a recent agreement to resume the commercial flight traffic that once totaled 500 direct trips per month.

Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors have remained frosty since a 2020 clash high in the Himalayas.

Along a disputed border over 12,000 feet above sea level in a Himalayan region called Ladakh, both sides claim territory the other considers theirs. This dispute hasn’t boiled over into conflict since the 1960s. However, in 2020, squadrons of troops clashed while running into each other on patrol. No shots were fired, in keeping with a ceasefire agreement from the ’70s, but the forces opted to engage in something like a street brawl, leaving over 20 dead.

Direct flights between India and China were suspended, Indian Buddhist pilgrims were prevented from visiting Tibet, numerous Chinese apps, products, and investments were banned in India, and security presences along the disputed “Line of Actual Control” in Ladakh grew menacingly dense.

But the Asian giants are set for a defrost after high-level meetings led by foreign ministers Wang Yi and S. Jaishankar.

A map from the CIA World Factbook annotated with border disputes between India and China.

“The improvement and development of China-India relations is fully in line with the fundamental interests of the two countries,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

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Flights were interrupted by COVID-19 restrictions, and though service between India and Hong Kong resumed, those of the mainland did not.

Other restrictions, including controls on the grazing rights of the Himalayan cultures in Ladakh, and Chinese-imposed restrictions on access to Tibet, have also been lifted recently.

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On the Hindu holiday of Diwali, Chinese military units visited the Indian border checkpoints loaded with presents to offer their counterparts as a preview of these warming relations on the very brow of the world

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