Rush Hour: India to resume tourist visas for Chinese citizens, fake ‘embassy’ unearthed in UP & more

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India will resume issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals after a gap of five years starting from July 24. This comes nine days after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said during a meeting with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng that relations between both countries were “steadily improving”.

New Delhi had suspended all tourist visas in February 2020 on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. China had also suspended visas to Indian citizens and other foreigners during the pandemic, but these restrictions were lifted in 2022 for students and business travellers.

In June that year, border tensions between India and China escalated when a violent face-off took place between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control.

Since then, India and China have held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks to resolve their border standoff. Read more.

The Uttar Pradesh Police have unearthed a fake “embassy” operating in Ghaziabad and arrested a man claiming to be an ambassador of a non-existent country called West Arctica. The man, Harsh Vardhan Jain, also claimed to be the diplomatic representative of other fictitious countries such as Saborga,...

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