Beijing: China on Friday announced plans to permit the return of "some" Indian students stranded in India for over two years following the visa and flight restrictions imposed by Beijing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that China attaches high importance to Indian students concerns about returning to China for studies.

Actually, the work for Indian students return has already been started. All that remains to be done is for the Indian side to provide the list of students who need to come back to China-he said.

Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in Beijing has asked the Indian students who are stuck in India in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, to furnish their details in the google form that it has shared on social media platforms for their smooth return to China to continue their offline studies.

In a statement, the Indian embassy in Beijing said, it intends to prepare a list of students which will be shared with the Chinese side for their consideration.

India on Thursday had expressed concern over thousands of Indian students being unable to resume their studies in China and said they should benefit from mechanisms being put in place by Chinese authorities for the return of foreign scholars.

Thousands of Indian students, most of them enrolled in medical courses, have been unable to return to universities in China because of Covid-19-related travel restrictions put in place by Beijing. There has been no word from China on allowing the return of Indian students but on April 21, Beijing did allow a batch of students from Sri Lanka to return to their campuses to resume in-person learning.