PM Modi raises LAC concerns, Xi harps on normal ties
Contrary to the statement issued by the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brief exchange with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, authoritative sources told HT that the meeting was sought by the Chinese side.
Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping met at the leaders’ lounge during the BRICS Summit briefly with their interpreters. While the Chinese description of the meeting indicates that both India and China want to normalise relations, this doesn’t appear to be the case as PM Modi raised concerns over massive PLA deployment in East Ladakh. It is understood that Prime Minister Modi made it clear that the route towards normalisation goes through disengagement and de-escalation along the 3,488 km LAC.
The Chinese side, however, wants India to keep the sensitive boundary issues and its military concerns on the side while pursuing speedy normalisation of ties. Since 1977, China has been advocating parallel-track diplomacy by keeping the boundary issue separate from trade ties. This has resulted in India facing a trade deficit of nearly $70 billion. With India and China issuing separate statements on the Modi-Xi meeting, it is evident that there was very little common ground in the meeting. Simply put, the two sides presented the views of their respective countries.
In a Chinese readout on Friday on the exchanges between the two leaders on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, it was claimed that President Xi Jinping spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the latter’s request.
“President Xi stressed that improving China-India relations serves common interests of the two countries and peoples, and is also conducive to peace, stability and development of the world and the region,” it said.
“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 & tranquility in the border region,” the statement said.
India’s foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said Prime Minister Modi conveyed to President Xi India’s concerns on the “unresolved” issues along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, underlining that maintenance of peace and tranquility in border areas was essential for normalisation of India-China ties.
“In this regard, two leaders agreed to direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and deescalation,” Kwatra added.