Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a bilateral meeting on Wednesday during the BRICS summit in Russia, their first formal discussion since border tensions erupted in eastern Ladakh in May 2020, PTI reported.
The announcement came from Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, a day after India and China finalized an agreement on patrolling by their militaries along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. The deal is seen as a breakthrough in efforts to end the four-year military stand-off between the two nations, the report added.
"I can confirm that there will be a bilateral meeting between PM Modi and President Xi Jinping tomorrow (Wednesday) on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit," Misri said, as quoted by PTI.
Although Modi and Xi briefly exchanged pleasantries at the G20 summit in Indonesia in 2022, this will be their first structured meeting since tensions flared up along the border. The last time the two leaders had an informal interaction was in August 2023 at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, as per PTI report.
The meeting is scheduled in Kazan, the host city for the BRICS summit.
Asked about the new patrolling agreement reached on Monday, Misri said the immediate focus would be disengagement, with further talks on troop de-escalation expected later, the report added.
"The patrolling and grazing activities in the areas under discussion will revert to the situation that existed in 2020," Misri was quoted as saying by PTI.
Previous disengagement deals were not revisited in these discussions. Instead, the focus was on unresolved issues in the past few years.
Misri noted that the agreement aims to prevent future clashes along the LAC. "We must ensure the mechanisms are in place to avoid incidents like those in the past," he added.
India and China’s relations hit a low point following a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, the worst military conflict between the two countries in decades. Since then, both sides have disengaged from several friction points after numerous military and diplomatic talks, though unresolved issues remained in areas like Depsang and Demchok.
The newly reached agreement is expected to address these areas, allowing both countries to resume patrolling.
CPI leader D Raja called for peaceful border relations between India and China, stressing the need for dialogue. "Both countries must see that the borders remain peaceful, with no military tensions or conflicts," Raja said, adding that mutual trust and dialogue are key to finding a lasting solution.
He proposed that India and China should return to the situation as it was in April 2020, suggesting it could lead to further de-escalation of tensions.
The Ministry of External Affairs announced on October 21 that the patrolling agreement resulted from extensive talks between Indian and Chinese officials at both diplomatic and military levels.
Meanwhile, China confirmed the agreement, with a foreign ministry spokesperson saying, “We have reached a resolution on the relevant matter and will work with the Indian side to implement the solution." China also emphasized that both sides remain in close communication through diplomatic and military channels, according to the PTI report.
(With inputs from PTI)
