Subrahmanyam Jaishankar retains his position as India's External Affairs Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration in his new term. Photo:VCG

Indian media reported on Thursday that India is discussing with China measures to put the relationship on a more predictable and positive course, citing Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

A Chinese expert noted that a number of Indian senior officials have recently increasingly expressed a desire to maintain stable relations with China, and a pragmatic attitude will be conducive to the future repair and improvement of bilateral relations while mutual trust needs to be built through renewed and strengthened contacts at all levels between the two countries.  

India and China are working toward a more predictable and stable relationship following years of border tensions, Jaishankar said during a discussion at Chatham House, a British policy institute, in London on Wednesday, according to The Economics Times on Thursday.

India wants a stable relationship with China but expects its interests to be "respected" and its "sensitivities recognized," Jaishankar said, according to The Economics Times report. He acknowledged that the relationship has been shaped by decades of ups and downs, but the real challenge is managing the balance as both nations rise, it reported. 

Jaishankar described India-China relations as "very unique," given their shared history and sheer size. "…When two countries of this size, history, complexity, and this consequence rise in parallel, they interplay with each other," he said, according to the report.

Jaishankar also mentioned on Wednesday during the conversation that discussions are underway regarding the resumption of pilgrimages to religious sites in China, direct flights between the two countries and the exchange of journalists, IANS reported on Thursday.

These efforts, which have been reaffirmed in recent high-level diplomatic engagements, play a key role in rebuilding trust, enhancing exchanges and easing the downturn in China-India relations caused by border issues, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Thursday, adding a pragmatic attitude can help repair and improve bilateral relations.  

Previously, during a January meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism between China and India, the two sides agreed to resume direct flights between the Chinese mainland and India, according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The two sides also agreed to take measures to facilitate personnel exchanges and mutual dispatch of journalists, and promote the resumption of the pilgrimage by Indian pilgrims to the sacred mountain and lake of Xizang in China this year, according to the statement.

Qian pointed out that people-to-people exchanges, especially the resumption of direct flights, will also promote closer ties between the two countries and lead to a revival of student exchanges in response to the mutual educational needs.

The remarks by Jaishankar followed the six-point consensus reached by both sides in December 2024 during the 23rd meeting of Special Representatives for China-India Boundary Question in Beijing, where they agreed to continue taking measures to ensure peace and tranquility in the border areas.

Since the16th BRICS Summit in Kazan at the end of October last year, China-India relations have been moving in a positive direction in accordance with the strategic guidance of the two countries' leaders, and it can be said that the relationship is steadily returning to a healthy and stable development track, Qian added.