Maintaining peace and tranquillity along the border should remain our priority, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan.

This was the first formal meeting of the two leaders since the military standoff began in mid-2020 along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

It came two days after New Delhi announced that India and China had reached a patrolling arrangement along the Line of Actual Control “leading to the disengagement” of the two countries’ militaries in eastern Ladakh.

“We welcome the agreements that we have reached over the border,” Modi said at the start of the meeting with Xi on Wednesday. “Mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity should remain the basis of our relationship. I am confident that we will hold talks with an open heart and our discussions will be constructive.”

Xi noted that it was the first formal meeting between the two leaders in five years. He said it was important for both sides “to have more communication and cooperation, properly handle differences and disagreements, and to facilitate each other’s pursuit of development aspirations”.

Border tensions between India and China escalated after June 2020, when a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers took place in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control. It led to the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers. Beijing said that the clash left four of its soldiers dead.

Since the Galwan clashes, China and India have held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks to resolve their border standoff.

During the meeting with Xi, Modi “underscored the importance of properly handling differences and disputes and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquillity” at the border, the External Affairs Ministry said.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that Modi and Xi “instructed the special representatives [on the India-China boundary question] to meet at an early date to oversee the management of peace and tranquillity in border areas and to explore a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question”.

The Special Representatives on the India-China boundary question are India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday said that the country’s forces would disengage with the Chinese military along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh after the status quo of April 2020 is restored.

“As far as we are concerned, we want to go back to the status quo of April 2020,” Dwivedi had said. “Thereafter we will be looking at disengagement, de-escalation and normal management of the LAC...This has been our stand since April 2020.”

Dwivedi added that the “normal management” of the Line of Actual Control would be achieved in a phased manner.

China confirmed that the two sides had arrived at a resolution on the “relevant matters”, but did not provide details of the agreement.

Many questions remain on pact with China: Congress

Ahead of the meeting with Xi and Modi, the Congress on Wednesday said that many questions remained about the Centre’s announcement that an agreement had been reached with China on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control.

“We hope that India’s worst foreign policy setback in decades is being honourable resolved,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a post on social media.

He said that the party expected the disengagement to restore the status quo as it existed in March 2020 and asked the Centre to take the “people of India into confidence” on the matter.

“This sorry saga is a complete indictment of Modi’s gullibility and naiveté regarding China,” he said, adding: “The Modi government’s approach to the entire crisis could be described as DDLJ: Deny, Distract, Lie and Justify.”