Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands at a formal dinner for G20 leaders in Bali on Tuesday, as reported by news agency ANI. During the G-20 dinner in Bali, Indonesia, PM Modi and his counterpart Xi Jinping held a brief conversation after the meeting. In the video shared by ANI, PM Modi is seen talking to the Chinese President during the G-20 dinner.
This is the first time the two leaders have been seen together since 2020, the year hostilities began in Ladakh.
Earlier in September 2022, during the apex meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Modi and Xi had gathered on one platform but there was no direct dialogue between them.
PM Modi attended the dinner of top SCO leaders. With the meeting between Modi and Jinping on Tuesday, speculations are also being made about the bilateral meeting between them amid the ongoing tussle over border incursions by China in eastern Ladakh. The last bilateral meeting between Modi and Jinping was held in Mamallapuram (Chennai) in November, 2019.
In the year 2018, both leaders started a round of informal talks. The first meeting between them took place in Wuhan. After the second meeting, there was preparation for the third meeting in the year 2020.
After the intrusion of Chinese troops into the eastern Ladakh region in May 2020, the relations between the two countries have deteriorated significantly.
After that, in June 2020, there was a clash between the soldiers of the two countries in the Galwan Valley. In the last two years, there have been four bilateral talks between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries.
In the first week of September 2022, the withdrawal of troops from the tense area in eastern Ladakh was announced between China and India. However, India is not satisfied with this and is demanding to implement the status quo before April, 2020.