Zha Liu says visas have already been issued to many students who want to resume their courses affected during the pandemic
Zha Liu says visas have already been issued to many students who want to resume their courses affected during the pandemic
Indian students who were studying in China before the pandemic have started returning to the country, Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Zha Liu said and stressed that direct flights between the two countries should resume at the earliest. Flights between India and China have been suspended following the outbreak of COVID-19 and have not resumed since then.
Speaking to reporters in Kolkata on Wednesday, Mr Jha said that his office in Kolkata and the Chinese embassy have already issued visas to many students and more have expressed their desire to go back to China. The Consul General further informed that flights connecting several cities in China and the neighboring cities of Dhaka, Colombo and Myanmar have resumed in India.
“We will have to resume flights soon,” Mr Jha said. He said that not only the students but “many of their Chamber friends (representatives of Chambers of Commerce in Kolkata)” want the flights to resume.
Mr Jha pointed out that during the pandemic many businessmen used chartered flights to return and added that oxygen concentrators were also brought to India using special flights. The Consul General suggested that a similar arrangement could be made for the time being.
According to reports, 23,000 students from India are studying medicine in Chinese universities and most of them are waiting to resume their courses.
The Chinese diplomat made these remarks on the sidelines of a briefing here, where he recently spoke to reporters at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The Consul General on the border dispute between the two countries after the Galwan Valley conflict avoided questions and said he could not comment on bilateral issues. However, Mr Jha said the situation was “back to normal” as per what he had learned. During his address, the Consul General said that both India and China are peace loving countries and we have to do things in our own way.