PM Modi, China's Xi Jinping To Hold Bilateral Meeting At BRICS Sidelines On Wednesday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a bilateral meeting in Russia's Kazan on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the ongoing BRICS summit.

The meeting, confirmed by India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, will come in the backdrop of a key breakthrough in the tensions between the two Asian neighbours over a border row that erupted in mid-2020.

"I can confirm that there will be a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit," Misri said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

On Monday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at the NDTV World Summit that India and China have reached a border patrolling arrangement that allows soldiers on both sides to resume patrolling the way they did before the standoff erupted along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh in 2020.

"We reached an agreement on patrolling, and we have gone back to the 2020 position. With that, we can say the disengagement with China has been completed," Jaishankar had said while speaking to NDTV's Editor-in-Chief Sanjay Pugalia.

"The important thing is if we have reached an understanding. I think what it does is it creates a basis for peace and tranquillity along the border, which were there before 2020," he added.

Earlier on Wednesday, Modi arrived in Russia—his second visit to the country this year—to participate in the BRICS summit.

Modi's first formal engagement in the day was a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the host of the summit. "He briefed President Putin about his engagements with the Ukrainian leadership and noted that India stood ready to contribute in bringing peace to the region," Misri said.

Notably, Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a military conflict since February 2022.

"PM Modi reiterated that dialogue and diplomacy were the way forward to achieve resolution of the conflict," the Indian foreign secretary said.

Modi also held a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, where the two leaders discussed the tense situation in the the West Asia region. Modi called for the "protection of civilians" and emphasised the "need for dialogue and diplomacy to de-escalate tensions," Misri said. The region remains on the edge amid fears of an escalation in the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah.