Discussions yet to take place on modalities of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra resumption: MEA

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs said Friday while an understanding has been reached for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra to resume this year, its modalities are yet to be firmed up.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said this in his weekly media briefing in response to a query on the pilgrimage.

He also referred to the overall constructive engagement between Indian and Chinese sides at various levels, since the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Russia's Kazan last October.

"On India-China talks, since we had the meeting between President of China and Prime Minister in Kazan, since then we've had engagement, constructive engagement at the level of External Affairs Minister, at the level of NSA. And Foreign Secretary also travelled to China in January where we met his counterpart," Jaiswal told reporters in response to a query.

"So conversation and dialogue have been going on and they have been moving forward in the right direction. Several in-principle approvals or in-principle understanding have been reached, and hopefully these will go forward in the days ahead," he said.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had met on the sidelines of G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Johannesburg in February.

The two ministers had reviewed developments in bilateral ties, management of peace and tranquillity along border areas and the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

During the briefing, when asked about the resumption, the MEA spokesperson said an understanding has been reached that the yatra will restart in 2025. However, how it will resume and what would be its modalities, discussions are yet to take place on this, he said.

The government organises the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra every year between June and September, through the two official routes of Lipulekh Pass (since 1981) in Uttarakhand and Nathu La Pass (since 2015) in Sikkim.

"The Yatra has not taken place since 2020 following the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent non-renewal of Yatra arrangements by the Chinese side," Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said in a written response to a query in Lok Sabha on Friday.

India and China in January had decided to resume the yatra and agreed in-principle to restore direct flights. The decisions were announced after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri held wide-ranging talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong in Beijing.

On a query on the progress of a free trade agreement with Peru, the MEA spokesperson said, "I understand that these negotiations were launched sometime back, if I'm not mistaken, in 2017, and since then, we've had seven rounds of negotiations. The two sides have been in touch in recent times. They have engaged and there is a likelihood of resuming these talks soon. The eighth round of negotiations will happen, and for those dates are being worked out between the two sides. So, the process looks positive."