Have to work jointly to resume India-China flights: Chinese Envoy

Kolkata: A Chinese diplomat in India has called  for "working together" to resume direct passenger flight operations between the two neighbouring countries, especially for smooth air travel of the students and businessmen, after the decline in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Zha Liyou made the pitch on Wednesday evening while speaking on the sidelines of the briefing on the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

He said, "My area has seen many students wishing to go back to China. They want to have visas issued. So we issue them visas and advise them how to fly. Currently we do not have a flight from Kolkata to Kunming. But one of the facts is that China has been operating resumed flights to many cities– Dhaka, Kathmandu, Colombo– in the neighborhood of India. So we will have to work together to resume the flights sooner than later because many of our chamber friends wish to have such flights. That takes two centers to talk. I am sure they are working very hard on this. I wish they can do it better. Embassy, me and my colleagues in Mumbai are also working very hard on this."

Mr Liyou added, "Students are returning to China. My office has issued many visas in the last few weeks to the students wishing to go back to China. Some of them, I am told, are already in China. Others are choosing flights. So this relates to flight-issue too because if you have the visa but you have to fly from Colombo. So when people talked to me to help them with the resumption of flights, I said it is the decision between the two centres. From China's perspective, we have opened flights to many cities in the world, including the US, UK and Australia but not here."