'Maintaining peace stability on border should remain our priority', says PM Modi to Xi Jinping in Kazan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia's Kazan on Wednesday. The meeting was held after five years and was the first since India-China engaged in a deadly clash that led to the death of at least 20 Indian soldiers. The crucial meeting was arranged a few days after the two sides reached an agreement on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. During the meeting, PM Modi told the Chinese leaders that maintaining peace and stability at the border should remain on top priority.

Although both had an opportunity for brief interaction at least twice-- first, on the sidelines of the



G20 summit at Bali in Indonesia in November 2022 and then during the BRICS summit at Johannesburg in South Africa in August 2023, the leaders hadn't had any separate meetings. During the brief interactions, both agreed to step up efforts to resolve the military stand-off along the LAC. 

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 of Ladakh left 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead in 2020. The neighbours increased their military presence along the icy frontier since, adding tens of thousands of troops and weapons over the last four years.