The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had discussed border issues when they met briefly at the Bali Summit of the G20 in 2022.
There has been confusion for the past four days after the Chinese foreign ministry claimed that the two leaders had reached a “consensus” to improve bilateral ties during their meeting on the sidelines of the Bali Summit held in November last year.
The surprising claims were made when Indian NSA Ajit Doval and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on Tuesday. A press release following the conversation had created confusion as Indian foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra had asserted that both leaders exchanged “courtesies” during their Bali meeting. Kwatra had not mentioned that both leaders discussed any bilateral issues.
What MEA says on China’s surprising claims
However, on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that both of them exchanged courtesies and spoke of the need to stabilize bilateral relationship or relations. “During the Bali G20 Summit last year, Prime Minister and President Xi Jinping, at the conclusion of the dinner hosted by the Indonesian President, exchanged courtesies and spoke of the need to stabilize our bilateral relations,” Bagchi said in a regular press conference.
“I think Foreign Secretary did mention maybe he didn’t mention the second part of it. He did talk about exchanging courtesies and I think there was a general discussion or spoke of the need to stabilize our bilateral relationship or relations,” he added.
Why Chinese statement come as a big surprise for India?
It is worth mentioning that the meeting between New Delhi and Beijing is considered crucial amid the fact the two nations engaged in a deadly clash in Ladakh in May 2020. Nevertheless, holding multiple meetings with commanders and defence ministers of both sides, the issue betwixt is still unsettled.
Although the two world leaders held a series of meetings including when the duo met at a seaside resort at Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu in October 2019, a bilateral meeting on the sideline of the BRICS summit in Brasilia in November 2019, they did not hold any bilateral meeting after a deadly border clash.
Also, they had attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit at Samarkand in Uzbekistan last year, and neither did they hold any bilateral meeting on the sideline of the mega event.
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