New Delhi, 24 October, 2024: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday in Kazan, Russia, marking their first bilateral meeting since the 2020 Galwan Valley clash. The two leaders will convene on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, amid recent progress in resolving border issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri confirmed the meeting on Tuesday, stating, “I can confirm that there will be a bilateral meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.”
This meeting comes just days after India and China reached an agreement on patrolling arrangements along the nearly 3,500-kilometer LAC, effectively putting an end to the four-year-long standoff that began with the deadly Galwan clash. Earlier on Tuesday, China officially confirmed the agreement.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, during a press briefing in Beijing, emphasized the significance of the resolution. “China and India have been in close communication through diplomatic and military channels on border-related issues. The two sides have reached an agreement on the relevant matters, and China highly values this resolution. We will work together with India to implement the next steps,” Lin said.
Foreign Secretary Misri had echoed similar sentiments on Monday, stating that diplomatic and military negotiators from both countries have been engaged in discussions over the past few weeks. “As a result, an agreement has been reached on patrolling arrangements along the LAC, leading to disengagement and the resolution of the issues that arose in 2020,” Misri told reporters in New Delhi.
This will be the first formal bilateral engagement between the two leaders since the brief informal interaction at the G20 Summit in Indonesia’s Bali and their previous meeting at the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg in August 2023.
With the recent border de-escalation, both nations are expected to discuss the path forward in maintaining stability along the LAC.
