India and China are preparing to resume direct passenger flights as soon as next month, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with ongoing negotiations.

New Delhi has asked airlines such as Air India and IndiGo to be ready to begin flights to China at short notice, with a formal announcement likely during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in China on August 31, the news agency said.

Indian and Chinese carriers previously operated direct fights between key cities before they were suspended during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

The resumption of direct flights is seen as the latest sign of a thaw between the Asian neighbors, whose relations were strained because of a deadly clash in the Himalayas in 2020.

Efforts to normalize ties began in October 2024, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan. Both leaders approved an agreement to disengage from areas of tension and a commitment to work towards restoring relations. 

Following multiple rounds of military and diplomatic talks, proposals to ease trade and investment restrictions between India and China have gained momentum. Beijing has long requested the resumption of direct flights between mainland China and India.

Last month, New Delhi restarted issuing tourist visas to Chinese citizens after a five-year pause. In June, a group of Indians crossed over into Tibet for the Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra, one of the holiest pilgrimages in Hinduism, for the first time since 2020. 

China has also eased curbs on shipments of urea to India, which is the world’s top importer of the crop nutrient, another Bloomberg report said.

The warming of ties between New Delhi and Beijing comes as India’s relations with the US face challenges, after President Donald Trump sharply raised tariffs on Indian goods over the Asian country’s imports of Russian oil.

In July, top officials from Beijing, Moscow, and New Delhi expressed interest in reviving the trilateral RIC (Russia-India-China) format.

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