PM Modi-Xi Meet At BRICS, China Calls It 'A Candid Meeting' (File. Source: PIB)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a brief meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting at Johannesburg, South Africa.
China said, the talk was candid, in-depth in exchange of views, and that both the countries should safeguard peace jointly, while India underlined the maintenance of peace and stability at the border, observing and respecting the LAC.
More on this, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s official website said, “the two leaders had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on current China-India relations and other questions of shared 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,” and, “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,” reported the HT.
While at the Indian side, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said, “the prime minister underlined that the 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,” further, he said, “In this regard, two leaders agreed to direct relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation.”
This is the second meeting of the heads of the countries after the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes. Earlier, they had met at the sidelines of G20 at Bali, last November. Since the Galwan Valley clashes, both parties have held meetings at the military level to resolve border issues, recently, the 19th round meeting was held.
The Ministry of External Affairs, in the statement also said that the two sides “agreed to resolve the remaining issues in an expeditious manner and maintain the momentum of dialogue and negotiations through military and diplomatic channels”, and “in the interim, the two sides agreed to maintain the peace and tranquility on the ground in the border areas,” the statement added, reported the HT.
