Shimla, Aug. 25 -- China has agreed in principle to the proposal of resuming trade through Shipki-La in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh during the recent visit of its foreign minister Wang Yi to India, a statement by the state government said on Sunday. "This breakthrough was made possible due to the personal intervention of CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who had written to the Union government, urging revival of the historic Indo-Tibetan trade route," following which the Union government "formally took up the matter with China," the statement said. The trade was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Himachal government's consistent efforts to resume trade with China through Shipki-La (Kinnaur) have yielded encouraging results. The government of China has agreed in principle to the proposal during the recent visit of Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi to India," it said. The state government would now take up the matter with the Union commerce ministry for completing codal formalities. The CM had emphasised that Shipki-La, once an offshoot of the legendary Silk Route and formalised as a border trade point under the India-China bilateral agreement of 1994, played a vital role in trans-Himalayan economic and cultural exchanges. External affairs minister S Jaishankar has informed the state government that the Government of India had initiated discussions with China for the resumption of border trade through all three designated points- Shipki-La (Himachal Pradesh), Lipulekh (Uttarakhand) and Nathu La (Sikkim), the statement issued here said.htc...