Beijing has indicated its willingness to allow the reopening of an Indian consulate in Lhasa, Tibet, since it was shut down after a war between the two countries in 1962.
'India can set up a consulate in Lhasa any time it wants to. It now depends on India,' Ju Jianhua, the director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Tibet Autonomous Region told an India Abroad New Service (IANS) correspondent in Lhasa last week.
While the Indian Foreign Ministry has yet to react, academics and analysts have described Mr Ju's overture as an indicator of Beijing's position and a very positive development in China-India bilateral relations.
'Mr Ju is an empowered state representative and he obviously means business. Chinese officials are not known to talk out of turn,' said retired General Deepankar Banerjee, a strategic analyst at New Delhi's Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.
'Given India's position that the Tibetan Autonomous Region is an integral part of China, New Delhi should welcome Mr Ju's offer with open arms.'
Manoranjan Mohanty of the Institute of Chinese Studies said that India had approached China several times for permission to reopen its Lhasa consulate but Beijing had been indecisive in the past.