China on Tuesday said it was ready for a dialogue with India to reopen the Nathu La for pilgrims visiting Kailash and Manasarovar in Tibet, reported PTI. The pass was closed in mid-June as a face-off between the two countries’ troops in the Doklam area of Sikkim had escalated tensions.
“China is ready to communicate with the Indian side regarding opening the pass and about other issues concerning the pilgrimage by Indians,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said. The two-month-long standoff was resolved in August, but the pass through which many Indian pilgrims go to Kailash Mansarovar remained shut.
China, however, said it could not share hydrological data with India from the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra river this year as its data collection station in Tibet was being upgraded. “To upgrade and renovate the relevant station in the Chinese side, we do not have the conditions now to collect the relevant statistics of the river,” Geng said.
The sharing of data is essential so that India can estimate the flow of water, and take measures to deal with flooding in the north-eastern states. On August 18, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said there India had not received the data from the Chinese side this year.
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