2023-08-25 20:44:09
Xi Jinping, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Cyril Ramaphosa and Narendra Modi (left to right) at the BRICS Summit on August 24, 2023 in Johannesburg. Image: AFP
On the fringes of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, China and India are discussing reducing tensions on their shared border. In fact, they hardly get any closer.
There is no end in sight to their rivalry. But China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed on the fringes of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg to further reduce tensions on the common border in the Himalayas. According to Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, both agreed to step up efforts to quickly withdraw troops and de-escalate. In the call, Modi also stressed India’s “concerns” about the unresolved difficulties along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western part of the border region, Kwatra said on Thursday.
Jochen Stahnke
Political correspondent for China, Taiwan and North Korea based in Beijing.
The newspaper “The Indian Express” wrote on Friday about a possible breakthrough in the tensions along the border that have been going on for a good three years. Xi and Modi last exchanged a few words on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia last year. As before, there was no formal discussion this time either. Details of what steps should be taken to de-escalate the border were not given. The commanders of the two countries responsible for the negotiations had previously spoken about disengaging the troops in the border area. China and India have stationed thousands of soldiers there.
#Modi #relax