Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold their first bilateral meeting since 2022 on Wednesday, coinciding with the conclusion of a four-year border stalemate between the two countries, Bloomberg reports.
The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, as confirmed by India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri.
Modi and Xi last had a formal meeting during the G20 summit in Bali in 2022, with a brief conversation occurring at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg last year. The upcoming meeting comes after Beijing and New Delhi reached an agreement earlier this week to resume border patrolling operations in disputed Himalayan regions, marking a significant step in easing tensions.
Relations between China and India have been strained since June 2020, when deadly clashes between soldiers on the border resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian and five Chinese troops. India responded by imposing strict investment rules on Chinese companies, banning hundreds of Chinese apps, and slowing visa approvals.
Prior to the current period of tension, Xi visited Chennai in 2019, while Modi hosted Xi in Wuhan the year before.
This week’s BRICS summit, the largest gathering of world leaders in Russia since the Ukraine invasion, has seen both Xi and Modi meet separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both leaders praised their expanding ties with Russia, emphasizing their unity with Putin as he seeks to challenge the West’s global influence.
Xi highlighted the “deep friendship” between China and Russia, claiming it will remain unchanged amidst global “chaos”. Modi, in televised remarks, said that his recent visits to Russia demonstrate the “close and deepening” relationship between the two nations.
