Pune (Maharashtra) [India], October 24 : Former Indian Ambassador to China, Gautam Bambawale said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia's Kazan.
Speaking to ANI, Bambawale said that India and China after reaching an agreement on the situation in Eastern Ladakh can move forward on that basis and will have a peaceful border between two nations.
He said, "I think in BRICS, India and China, the two largest countries in terms of population, they're also big countries in terms of the size of the economies. So, I think peace between India and China is very important, not only for BRICS, but for the world as a whole."
"And we hope that now that we have reached some agreement with China on the situation in Eastern Ladakh, that we can move forward on that basis and that we will be able to have a peaceful border between India and China and as our leaders have said that once the border is peaceful then the rest of the relationship can slowly become what it was earlier also," he added.
He recalled that PM Modi and Xi Jinping last met in 2019. He stated that the meeting between the two leaders came after some of the tensions had subsided after the agreement reached between the two nations.
On the meeting between PM Modi and Xi Jinping, he said, "Prime Minister Modi of India and President Xi Jinping of China had a bilateral meeting in Kazan in Russia on the sidelines of BRICS summit. It is the first time that the two leaders were meeting like this together in five years. The last meeting took place sometime in 2019. Of course, the reason why they didn't meet in between was because of the border tensions in eastern Ladakh between India and China. But, some of those tensions have subsided because of this new agreement that has taken place recently."
"I think what is important for India to do and what is important for your viewers to understand is that while Chinese leaders and while Chinese people might say something, we have to judge them by their actions and not by their words. So, whatever has been promised on the border, whatever has to be done between the two countries, we will judge how China is wanting to do this, depending on their actions, not on their words. So I think that is important. So it is a good thing that the leaders have met, but they have only exchanged words. Let us see if that is translated onto the ground and that words become actions," he further said.
The meeting marked the first formal structured interaction between the two leaders in five years. The meeting between two leaders came after India and China reached an agreement on resuming regular patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
"At this point of time, after four and a half years of problems on the border along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, there is a lack of trust not only between the militaries of India and China, but also between the governments of India and China. So rebuilding that trust, which can only happen slowly and over a long time, will be important for India-China relations to become stable and to move forward from where we are today," he added.
Following the meeting with Xi Jinping, PM Modi stated that ties between the two nations are important for the people of India and China and for regional and global peace and stability.
In a post on X, PM Modi stated, "Met President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Kazan BRICS Summit. India-China relations are important for the people of our countries, and for regional and global peace and stability. Mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity will guide bilateral relations."
The meeting between the two leaders came after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on October 21 that an agreement had been reached between two nations regarding patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China border areas.
The border standoff between India and China began in eastern Ladakh along the LAC in 2020, sparked by Chinese military actions. In early May 2020, troops from China's People's Liberation Army and the Indian Army clashed at locations along the LAC, the disputed boundary between China and India.
The tensions between the two neighbouring countries along the border escalated on the June 15, 2020, face-off in Galwan Valley leading to casualties on both sides.