New Delhi, Aug 25: China has said its President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a “candid and in-depth exchange” of views on current China-India relations and other questions of shared interest. In the meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg on Thursday, Xi stressed that improving China-India relations serves the common interests of the two countries and peoples, and is also conducive to peace, stability and development of the world and the region, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Friday. The Indian version of the meeting was more substantive and put the border issue upfront. Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra on Thursday had said at a press conference, “The PM highlighted India's concerns on the unresolved issues and 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 said the two leaders agreed to direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation. This aspect was not present in the Chinese readout. The Chinese MFA said Xi told PM Modi, “The 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 and tranquillity in the border region.”
China routinely uses the phrase “properly handle border-related differences” and had last used it in August last year when the Chinese Defence Ministry had reacted against the special forces of the US and India holding a joint combat exercise in the southern foothills of the Himalayas. As far back as in 2014, then Chinese envoy of India Wei Wei had said, “Sound foundation has been laid to properly handle border-related differences.”
