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China-India Relations: Apart from business, the Himachal government has also received positive response regarding the resumption of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Shipki-La.
China-India Relations: China has agreed to the proposal to resume trade through Shipki-La in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh during its recent visit to its Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The state government gave this information on Sunday. Trade was suspended in 2020 due to Kovid-19 epidemic. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the state government that the Government of India has started a discussion with China to resume border trade through the three specified points Shipki-Lala (Himachal Pradesh), Lipulekh (Uttarakhand) and Nathu La (Sikkim). The Himachal government’s frequent efforts to resume trade with China through Shipki-La (Kinnaur) has led to encouraging results. The Chinese government has rejected the proposal during the recent visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the proposal.
CM Sukhu wrote a letter to the central government
The statement said that this success was possible due to the personal intervention of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, who wrote a letter to the Central Government, urging the revival of the historic India-Tibetan trade route. After this, the central government formally raised the matter with China, which made a consensus to resume the business. He played an important role in Trans-Himalaya Economic and Cultural Exchange due to formal establishment as a border trade point under the Silk Route and the 1994 Indo-China bilateral agreement. The statement said that apart from business, the state government has also received positive response regarding the resumption of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Shipki-La.
New avenues of economic development will open
The Himachal government had highlighted that the Shipki-La route, which leads to Darchen and Mansarovar via Gartok, is smaller than the Tibetan side. In the letter sent to the central government, it was said that there is already road connectivity in Himachal Pradesh through Rampur Bushahar and Puh, which has made it possible to develop the necessary base camp and auxiliary infrastructure for the journey. The Foreign Minister said in a letter to the Chief Minister that after a gap of five years, Kailash Mansarovar Yatra has resumed through Lipulekh Pass (Uttarakhand) and Nathu La Pass (Sikkim), and the possibility of adding Shipki-La as an additional route is being discussed with China. The statement said that the state government hopes that this initiative will not only revive traditional border trade but will also open new avenues of tourism, cultural exchange and economic development in Himachal Pradesh.
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