China and India should manage their differences, Xi tells Modi in first formal talks in 5 years

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed on Wednesday to boost communication and cooperation between their countries and resolve conflicts to help improve ties that were damaged by a deadly military clash in 2020.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia for their first formal talks in five years, signaling that ties between the Asian giants have begun to recover from the diplomatic rift caused by the clash along their disputed Himalayan frontier.

India and China, two of the world’s biggest economies, have maintained strong trade ties despite the military and diplomatic tensions. The rapprochement is expected to boost Chinese investment in India.

India said the two leaders have directed their officials to take further steps to stabilize all aspects of bilateral ties.

The Xi-Modi meeting in the city of Kazan came two days after New Delhi said it had reached a deal with Beijing to resolve the four-year military standoff in the Himalayan region of Ladakh, although neither side has shared details of the pact.

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The two sides should strengthen communication and cooperation, resolve conflicts and differences, and realize each other’s development dreams, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported Xi as telling Modi.

Modi put forward ideas for improving and developing bilateral relations, to which Xi agreed in principle, CCTV added without elaborating.

In response, Modi told Xi that peace, stability, mutual trust and respect were crucial for relations.

“We welcome the agreement on the issues that had come up over the last four years,” Modi told Xi in comments aired on India’s state broadcaster Doordarshan.

“It should be our priority to maintain peace and tranquility on the border. Mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity should be the basis of our relationship,” Modi said.

Relations between the world’s two most populous nations — both nuclear powers — have been strained since a clash between their troops on the largely undemarcated frontier in the western Himalayas left 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead in 2020.

The neighbors have added tens of thousands of troops and weapons along the icy frontier over the last four years.

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Modi and Xi had not held formal bilateral talks since then, although both participated in multilateral events. Their last bilateral summit talks were held in October 2019 in the southern Indian town of Mamallapuram.

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The two spoke briefly on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022. They spoke again on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg in August 2023 but released different versions of the conversation, suggesting they didn’t see eye to eye.

Xi skipped the G20 summit hosted by New Delhi the following month, a decision seen as another setback to relations.

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

India had made improving the wider political and damaged business ties contingent upon finding a solution to the border standoff.

New Delhi had increased the scrutiny of investments coming from China, blocked direct flights between the two countries and had practically barred issuing any visas to Chinese nationals since the Ladakh clashes.

Speaking in Kazan, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said there was hope for better India-China relations.

“As we have maintained during the last four years, the restoration of peace and tranquility on the border areas will create space for ... normalization of our bilateral relations.”