PATROLLING FOR PEACE

The images of the two world leaders together conveyed a message. In a definite sign of a thaw in relations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping held a bilateral meeting-their first in five years-on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on October 23.

- Pradip R. Sagar

At the 50-minute meeting, Prime Minister Modi said India-China relations are crucial for global peace and said the relations should be guided by "mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity". China's ambassador to India Xu Feihong conveyed the gist of the meeting in a matter-of-fact tweet: "The two sides need to strengthen communication and cooperation, properly manage differences and disagreements, and facilitate each other's pursuit of development aspirations."

Behind the Modi-Xi meeting was improvement on heavily contested ground-on October 21, it was announced that the two nations have reached an agreement on "patrolling arrangements" by their respective militaries along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. This could well be the beginning of the resolution of the military stand-off between India and China that began in June 2020 after the Galwan Valley clash, which also put ties between the two nuclear-armed neighbours into a deep freeze. The patrolling agreement is a minor breakthrough because while at other sites along the LAC, like the Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso, for example, the face-off was toned down by disengagement of militaries and creation of buffer zones, two disputed areas held out tenaciously against any resolution. Now, patrolling rights in these areas-Depsang plains and Demchok, where thousands of troops remain deployed-are restored to both armies. The 73-day Doklam stand-off in 2017 was resolved in a similar fashion just days before Modi's visit to Beijing for another BRICS summit.