International Desk: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for the first time after five years in a bilateral meeting. The meeting between the two took place today (Wednesday) on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia.
Modi-Shi
Relations between the two countries have been at a low point ever since the deadly clash between the Indian and Chinese armies along the Ladakh border in June 2020. Then for the first time the top leaders of India and China sat in a meeting.
Sources in India's Ministry of External Affairs informed that the priority should be to restore peace on the border of the two countries - Prime Minister Modi emphasized this issue the most during the meeting.
On the other hand, President Xi reminded that both China and India have some 'important responsibilities' in the international world.
Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping last met in Brasilia in November 2019. It was also a BRICS summit, hosted by Brazil – and the Modi-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the summit.
Significantly, the meeting between the two leaders took place barely 72 hours after a major 'progress' was achieved in diplomatic and military-level talks between India and China.
According to the agreement, the Line of Actual Control or LAC between the two countries will revert to the way the two sides patrolled the border before May 2020.
Since a bloody clash between the two countries' armies in June 2020 in Ladakh's Galwan Valley has escalated along the border, relations between Delhi and Beijing have also soured.
Both countries then began deploying thousands of additional troops along the border.
There have been rounds of talks at the diplomatic and military levels to 'de-escalate' or de-escalate the border, but no real breakthrough or 'break through' has been achieved until three days ago.
The fact that the two countries have agreed on a meeting between the top leaders right after this is seen by observers as a sign of great improvement in relations between Delhi and Beijing.
