China and India are today set to reopen a historic trading route through a Himalayan pass that has been closed for 44 years a sign of warming relations between the two most populous nations.

The reopening of the Nathula pass demonstrates the two countries' determination to strengthen economic and political exchanges, Chinese officials and researchers said yesterday.

The 4,545-metre-high pass, which runs between India's state of Sikkim and Yadong County of the Tibet Autonomous Region, was once part of an ancient trade route and used to account for 80 per cent of Sino-Indian border trade.

The pass, which was closed after China and India fought a brief border war in 1962, is 460 kilometres from the Tibetan capital Lhasa and 550 kilometres from Calcutta, India's second largest city.

Huang Xilian, director of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, said a grand ceremony would be held at the pass today to mark the resumption of border trade.

Huang told China Daily that markets have been set up on both sides of the border to facilitate the resumption of bilateral overland trade.

The Chinese market, located at Renqinggang village of Yadong county, is 16.8 kilometres from the Nathula pass while the Indian market is at Changgu in Sikkim, 17 kilometres from the pass.

"The two markets open only from April to September each year due to the climate in the Himalayan region," Huang said.

Trading items are likely to include textiles, wool, herbs and consumer electronics from China; and iron ore, livestock and car parts from India.

The reopening of the Nathula pass is based on a 2003 memorandum on expanding bilateral border trade signed during a visit to China by then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Sun Shihai, deputy director of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China and India have showed growing mutual trust by "turning a battlefield into a market."

"Reopening the pass will help promote closer economic and personnel exchanges along the border," he told China Daily.

"What's more important, it will also help push forward Sino-Indian political relations and contribute to regional stability and security."

The researcher added that China and India, two of the fastest-growing economies, enjoy bright prospects for economic and trade co-operation.

China is India's second largest trade partner only after the United States. Bilateral trade shot up to US$18.7 billion in 2005 from US$1.16 billion in 1995, with a surplus of US$833 million for India.

Trade in 2006 is predicted to surpass the 2008 target of US$20 billion set by the two governments.

Source: China Daily