China said on Thursday that the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Russia's Kazan on Wednesday carries a "great significance" as they reached an "important common understanding" for improvement of bilateral ties.
They have finally reached important common understandings on how to improve and develop their bilateral relations and set the course to navigate bilateral relations back onto the path of steady development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said here.
Commenting on a question as to what Beijing thought about the outcome of the meeting, Lin said, China is ready to work with India in order to view and handle the bilateral relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective.
China is ready to enhance communication and coordination, deepen strategic mutual trust, solve problems properly, and bring bilateral relations back onto the right path of stable development as soon as possible, Lin said.
On the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Modi and Xi endorsed Monday's agreement between India and China regarding patrolling and disengagement on both sides of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
Following this, it was decided to reinstate various bilateral dialogue mechanisms, indicating efforts to restore normalcy to ties that took a body blow at the hands of a deadly military clash in 2020.
Asked for his response to a Chinese official media report which said "Modi made suggestions on improving and developing the relationship, which Xi agreed to in principle," Lin said "both sides were of the view that this meeting is constructive and carries great significance.".
"They agreed to view and handle China-India relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective, prevent specific disagreements from affecting the overall relationship, and contribute to maintaining regional and global peace and prosperity and to advancing multiplicity in the world," he said.
Both sides agreed to strengthen communication and cooperation, increase strategic mutual trust through talks between their foreign ministers and officials at various levels in order to help the relationship return to steady development at an early date," he added.
They also agreed to "make good use of the Special Representatives mechanism on the China-India boundary question, ensure peace and tranquility in the border areas, find a fair and reasonable settlement, step up communication and cooperation in multilateral fora, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries," the spokesperson said.
Once set up in 2003 with 22 meetings to discuss the boundary question, the Special Representatives mechanism has played a crucial role in the development and improving of relations, with the country's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the helm. The last meeting between Doval and Wang under the mechanism took place in 2019.
Relations between the two countries nosedived after the May 2020 incursion by the Chinese military in eastern Ladakh in which the People's Liberation Army (PLA) moved a large number of troops exercising in the vicinity of the LAC, which was followed by the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.
India and China firmed up an agreement on the patrolling and disengagement of troops along the LAC in eastern Ladakh on Monday, a major breakthrough to bring an end to the over four-year-long standoff.
Speaking about the meeting between the two leaders, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, at a media briefing at Kazan, said that both Modi and Xi stated that India and China can have a "peaceful, stable and beneficial bilateral relationship" with maturity and wisdom, and by showing mutual respect for each other's sensitivities, interests, concerns and aspirations.
Restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas would create space for a return to the path of normalisation of bilateral relations between the two sides, according to Misri, citing New Delhi's consistent stance on the eastern Ladakh row.
In the coming weeks and months, high-level visits will mark a flurry in both countries to revive ties and improve relations on all fronts.
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