China said in a statement on Thursday that the bilateral meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which took place on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, covered India-China relations.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry responded to the bilateral discussion between China and India by saying that Xi Jinping and PM Modi had a “candid and in-depth exchange of views” on the state of China-India relations and other topics of mutual interest.
“President Xi stressed that improving China-India relations serves the common interests of the two countries and peoples, and is also conducive to peace, stability and development of the world and the region,” the statement by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson read.
The official statement also stated that the two nations should “jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border region” by handling the border problem correctly while keeping in mind the general goals of their bilateral ties.
On Thursday when they shared the stage at the BRICS meeting in South Africa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping were seen walking side by side and having a brief talk.
According to India’s Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, PM Modi expressed to Xi Jinping India’s concerns on the outstanding issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western sector of the India-China border areas.
The G20 summit, which will be held in New Delhi in less than two weeks, is immediately following the conference.
Since the fighting in Galwan in May 2020, these two leaders have engaged in a second such casual conversation. Similar interactions between the two leaders occurred in November 2022 at the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, where PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged courtesies and discussed the need to “stabilize” bilateral relations.
