BEIJING, June 19: China and India have agreed to resume frontier trade next month through a Himalayan pass that was closed 44 years ago following a border war, state media said on Monday.

Officials from both sides signed an agreement on Sunday in Lhasa, the capital of the Chinese region of Tibet, to reopen the Nathu La Pass on July 6.

Nathu La, part of the famed Silk Road and located 4,400 metres above sea level, has been closed since a brief war broke out between China and India in 1962.

The two sides agreed in June 2003 to open the pass following a historic visit to Beijing by then-Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Indian government officials said last week they were sending a delegation to Lhasa in the expectation of signing the final agreement.

The reopening of the pass, which used to be an important land transport route between China and India, is expected to have a significant impact on trade between the two countries.

It will also help Tibet’s economic development, it said, and coincides with the July 1 start of the first train line into the region from eastern China.—AFP