China expresses willingness to consider facilitating return of Indian students

New Delhi, Apr 29: After the meeting of External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar with Finance Minister of China, Wang Yi on March 25, the Chinese side has expressed willingness to consider facilitating the return of Indian students to China while requesting students to provide information by filling up the form by May 8, Embassy of India in China said in a statement on Friday.

The Chinese side is willing to consider facilitating the return of Indian students to China on a "need-assessed basis" It said, "In order to facilitate this, the Indian Embassy intends to prepare a list of such students which will be shared with the Chinese side for their consideration. Therefore, Indian students are requested to provide the necessary information by filling up the Google Form at this link , latest by 08 May 2022."

The Embassy of India in China will collate the information and share with the Chinese side, consult relevant Chinese departments to verify the list and indicate whether the identified students can travel to China to complete the course. "This coordination process would be carried out in a time-bound manner," the statement claimed.

The Chinese side has also conveyed that eligible students should unconditionally abide by the Covid-19 prevention measures, and agree to bear all expenses related to Covid-19 prevention measures by themselves.

The development comes days after India, in a tit-for-tat move, suspended tourist visas issued to Chinese nationals.