PM Modi At BRICS Summit, To Hold Bilateral With Xi Jinping Today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in Russia to attend the BRICS summit, will hold his first bilateral meeting today with Chinese President Xi Jinping since the 2020 Galwan clash. The two leaders will meet in the city of Kazan, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had announced yesterday.

"I can confirm that there will be a bilateral meeting held between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit," said Mr Misri. The BRICS is a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

The bilateral marks another upturn in the India-China ties after a consensus between the two countries on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control.

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The two leaders, who arrived in Kazan on Tuesday to participate in the BRICS summit, had brief interactions only twice since the 2020 clash -- on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in 2022 and the BRICS summit in Johannesburg in 2023.

PM Modi met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian yesterday at the summit and emphasised the need for peace in West Asia. He also held bilateral talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin and said the Russia-Ukraine conflict should be resolved in a peaceful manner.

First India-China Bilateral Since 2020

The bilateral meeting between PM Modi and Xi Jinping will be the first since the 2020 face-off between the troops of the two countries.

Indian and Chinese troops had clashed in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, sparking a major standoff along the Line of Actual Control. Both sides had sustained casualties and ties between the two nations had soured.

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The two sides held a series of military and diplomatic talks in the last couple of years, after which the troops disengaged from a number of friction points. In the latest breakthrough that is expected to lower tensions, the two countries this week reached a patrolling deal along the Line of Actual Control.

After the deal, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said at the NDTV World Summit, Indian and Chinese soldiers would be able to patrol the border area in the way they did before the 2020 face-off.

Mr Misri the immediate focus of patrolling deal will be on disengagement and they will take up the issue of de-escalation and de-induction of troops at an appropriate time.