India, China differ on which side sought Modi-Xi conversation
While China said the Modi-Xi conversation was held on India’s request, Indian officials insisted that Beijing desired a bilateral meeting
Two days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping talked in Johannesburg, the two Asian countries differed on who sought the meeting.
While China said the Modi-Xi conversation was held on India’s request, Indian officials insisted that Beijing desired a bilateral meeting.
Modi and Xi held the conversation on Wednesday on the sidelines of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit. It was not a structured bilateral meeting.
There was a pending request from the Chinese side for a bilateral meeting, sources in the Indian side said, hours after a Chinese foreign ministry readout said it was held on New Delhi’s request.
The Chinese readout said that Xi stressed that improving China-India relations serves common interests and is conducive to peace and stability of the world as well as the region.
India's Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra on Thursday said Modi conveyed to Xi India's concerns on the "unresolved" issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
Modi tells Xi
Modi underlined that maintaining peace and tranquillity in border areas was essential for normalisation of India-China ties.
The Chinese readout described the conversation between the two leaders as "candid and in-depth"
"The two sides should bear in mind the overall interests of their bilateral relations and handle properly the border issue so as to jointly safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border region," a statement from the Chinese embassy in New Delhi said.
"The prime minister underlined that maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and observing and respecting the LAC are essential for the normalisation of the India-China relationship," India’s Kwatra said.
"In this regard, two leaders agreed to direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation," he added.
It was the first Modi-Xi interaction in public after their brief encounter on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali in November last year.
Ties between India and China came under severe strain following a border row in eastern Ladakh in May 2020.
(With agency inputs)
