This Tuesday, at the 15th BRICS Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to China’s President Xi Jinping on many unresolved issues, including the LAC.
This Tuesday, August 24, the 15th BRICS Summit took place in Johannesburg. Countries like Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa took part in this summit. When PM Modi met China’s President Xi Jinping, he spoke about many unresolved topics between India and China, including the LAC issue. The foreign secretary, Vinay Kwatra, said at a briefing that “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”. Kwatra added, “In this regard, two leaders agreed to direct relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation.”
On the same day, before this discussion, both leaders were seen greeting and shaking hands with each other before the leaders’ briefing. It was their first international meeting after the G20 meeting in Bali, which was held last November. Xi Jinping smiled at PM Modi while shaking hands, and they both talked for a while with each other. This was also their first interaction after the Galwan Valley clash, which happened in 2020. The relations between the two nations have been strained ever since then. Both the countries’ armies have recently held the 19th round of corps commander-level talks.
The ministry of external affairs stated, “They agreed to resolve the remaining issues in an expeditious manner and maintain momentum of dialogue and negotiations through military and diplomatic channels. In the interim, the two sides agreed to maintain the peace and tranquillity on the ground in the border areas.”
The border disputes between India and China have been persistent for the past few years.