China defends visa curbs against stranded Indians, says it's ‘appropriate’ to combat COVID-19
The Hindu
More than 23,000 Indian students studying in Chinese colleges, mostly medicine, hundreds of businesspersons, employees, and their families have been stuck in India since last year
China on Monday defended its visa curbs which have prevented thousands of stranded Indians from returning to Beijing, saying they are "appropriate" to control the spread of COVID-19 and do not target India alone, but are applied to even Chinese citizens coming back from overseas.
Responding to questions on Indian ambassador to Beijing Vikram Misri’s criticism of China’s prolonged stringent travel restrictions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also ruled out the easing of the curbs in the near future.
Mr. Misri, in his address to the Track-II Dialogue on China-India Relations last week, expressed “disappointment” over China's reluctance to permit the return of thousands of stranded Indian students, employees and their families due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 29th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP29), held at Baku in Azerbaijan, is arguably the most important of the United Nations’ climate conferences. It was supposed to conclude on November 22, after nearly 11 days of negotiations and the whole purpose was for the world to take a collective step forward in addressing rising carbon emissions.