BEIJING
\nChinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held \u201ccandid and in-depth\u201d talks to ease tensions along their disputed frontier, Beijing said on Friday, after a rare face to face encounter between the two leaders.
\nRelations between the world\u2019s two most populous countries have been in deep freeze since a deadly Himalayan border crash that killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops in 2020.
\nTens of thousands of soldiers have since been massed along both sides of the border. They remain despite 19 rounds of talks between top military officials of both countries.
\nThe leaders met on Thursday while attending the BRICS summit in South Africa in what China\u2019s foreign ministry characterised as a \u201ccandid and in-depth exchange of views\u201d.
\n\u201cPresident Xi stressed that improving China-India relations serves the common interests of the two countries and peoples,\u201d a ministry spokesman said on Friday.
\n\u201cThe 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.\u201d
\nIndia\u2019s foreign secretary said Modi had highlighted unresolved issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that divides India\u2019s Himalayan region of Ladakh from Chinese territory, where the deadly 2020 clash took place.
\n\u201cModi underlined that \u2026 observing and respecting the LAC are essential for normalising India-China relationship,\u201d Vinay Kwatra told reporters on Thursday.
\nIndia has been wary of its northern neighbour\u2019s growing military assertiveness and disputes over the two Asian giants\u2019 3,500-kilometre shared frontier have been a perennial source of tension.
\nChina also claims all of India\u2019s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, considering it part of Tibet, and the Asian giants fought a full-scale border war there in 1962.
\nBoth countries have regularly accused each other of trying to seize territory along their unofficial divide, known as the Line of Actual Control.
\nThe clash in 2020 along the border dividing Tibet from India\u2019s state of Ladakh led to a sharp deterioration in relations.
\nModi\u2019s government has pumped billions of dollars into connectivity projects on its side of the border to boost civilian presence, and establish new paramilitary battalions.
\nIt is also seeking to develop closer ties with Western countries including fellow Quad members the United States, Japan, and Australia, which are themselves wooing it as an alternative to China.
\nNineteen rounds of military talks between Beijing and New Delhi, including the latest earlier this month, have failed to make headway on the border disputes.
\nXi and Modi have both been present at numerous multilateral diplomatic meetings since the 2020 clashes.
\nBut Thursday marked the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since a brief interaction at the G20 Summit in Bali last November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held \u201ccandid and in-depth\u201d talks to ease tensions along their disputed frontier, Beijing said on Friday, after a rare face to face encounter between the two leaders. Relations between the world\u2019s two most populous countries have been in deep freeze since a deadly Himalayan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-351690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n