December 25, 2024

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, on October 23, 2024.

China Daily (Reuters)

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed on Wednesday to strengthen communication and cooperation between the two countries to resolve conflicts to help improve relations damaged by deadly military conflicts in 2020.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in Russia, the first formal talks in five years, signaling that ties between the Asian powers are beginning to recover from a diplomatic rift caused by a disputed Himalayan border conflict.

India and China, the world’s two largest economies, maintain strong trade ties despite military and diplomatic tensions. The settlement is expected to boost Chinese investments in India.

India said the leaders of the two countries have directed officials from both countries to take further steps to stabilize bilateral relations at all levels.

Xi and Modi met in Kazan two days after New Delhi said it had reached an agreement with Beijing to resolve a four-year military standoff in the Himalayan region of Ladakh, but neither side disclosed the details of the agreement.

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According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Xi Jinping told Modi that the two sides should strengthen communication and cooperation to resolve conflicts and differences and realize each other’s development dreams.

CCTV added that Modi put forward the idea of ​​improving and developing bilateral relations, and Xi Jinping agreed in principle.

In this regard, Modi told Xi Jinping that peace, stability, mutual trust and respect are crucial to the relationship between the two countries.

“We welcome agreement on issues that have arisen over the past four years,” Modi told Xi in comments broadcast on India’s state broadcaster Doordarshan.

“Maintaining peace and tranquility at the borders should be our top priority. Mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity should be the basis of our relations,” Modi said.

Relations between the world’s two most populous countries, both nuclear powers, have been tense in 2020 after their armies clashed in an undemarcated border area in the western Himalayas, killing 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese Soldiers die.

Over the past four years, neighboring countries have deployed tens of thousands more troops and weapons to the icy border.

Since then, although Modi and Xi Jinping have participated in multilateral events, they have not held formal bilateral talks. Their last bilateral summit was held in October 2019 in the southern Indian town of Mamallapuram.

The two spoke briefly on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022. Disagreement.

Xi Jinping will skip next month’s Group of 20 summit hosted by New Delhi, a decision seen as another setback for relations between the two countries.

Diplomatic efforts have gained momentum in recent months after the two foreign ministers met in July and agreed to step up talks to ease border tensions.

India’s improvement in broader political relations and damaged commercial ties depends on finding a solution to the border standoff.

Since the conflict in Ladakh, New Delhi has stepped up scrutiny of investment from China, blocking direct flights between the two countries and banning all but all visas to Chinese citizens.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in a speech in Kazan that India-China relations are expected to improve.

“As we have insisted over the past four years, the restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas will create space for… the normalization of our bilateral relations.”

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