Kazan: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first bilateral meeting at the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia today.
The meeting was held after five years and was the first bilateral leadership meeting between the Asian giants since India-China militarily engaged in a deadly border clash in the high himalayas in 2020, which resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers.
The crucial meeting took place a few days after the two countries reached a major breakthrough and agreement on border patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh – the temporary border between India and China. Both countries share a long land border of 3,488 kms along the Himalayan frontier.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly played an important role in bringing the two leaders together at the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan.
Although both PM Modi and Xi Jinping have had opportunities for brief interaction at least twice: first, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit at Bali, Indonesia in November 2022 and then during the BRICS Summit at Johannesburg, South Africa in August 2023; the leaders hadn’t had any separate official bilateral meeting. During these brief interactions, both leaders had agreed to step up efforts to resolve the military stand-off along the LAC.
Relations between the world’s two most populous nations and major economies, both of whom are nuclear powers, have been strained since 2020. The Indian Army has remained mobilised at the LAC, in mirror deployment, matching the deployment of Chinese PLA soldier for soldier and weapon for weapon even through the extremely harsh Himalayan winters for the past 4 and a half years.
The bilateral meeting at BRICS, marks a major turning point in Indo-China relations and the thaw will have larger geopolitical ramifications for the world.
At the bilateral meet, PM Modi told President Xi “India-China relations are important for the people of our countries, and for regional and global peace and stability. Mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity will guide bilateral relations.”
