Submitted by 2point6billion.com Blog

Bilateral trade between India and China opened on Monday through the fabled Silk Road, reported the Hindustan Times.

“Border trade was earlier scheduled to open on May 1 but was postponed after Beijing requested New Delhi to delay the start following landslides in the Tibet Autonomous Region,” said Ujwal Gurung, Sikkim’s director of industry and commerce.

“Formal trade for the current year began on Monday and would continue until Nov 30,” Gurung told IANS.

The two Asian giants in July 2006 reopened trade across the 15,000-ft Nathu La Pass, 52 km east of Sikkim’s capital Gangtok, as part of a broader rapprochement. The move marked the first direct trade link between the nuclear-armed neighbours since a bitter border war in 1962.

Under an agreement reached between the two countries, trade takes place four days a week - Monday to Thursday - beginning May 1 each year and lasting until Nov 30 when snow makes the area impassable.