Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged greetings on the sidelines of G20 dinner in Indonesia . It was a first such engagement between the two leader since the 2020 Galwan Valley incident in which 20 Indian soldiers died.
The meeting between the Indian prime minister and Chinese president was an informal one and not a bilateral.
It may be noted that PM Modi and Xi had held bilateral meetings with several leaders of other countries, but did not have eye-to-eye contact during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in September 2022.
Since May 2022, India and China been entangled in a bitter border standoff in eastern Ladakh. Both the nuclear-powered countries have held several military level talks to disengage from the friction points.
The relations between India and China deteriorated following the deadly clash in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June 2020.
On September 8, 2022, according to the consensus reached in the 16th round of India China Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Indian and Chinese troops in the area of Gogra-Hotsprings (PP-15) disengaged in a coordinated and planned way.
The Asian giants had mutually agreed that disengagement is conducive to the peace and tranquility in the border areas.
Recently, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar conveyed to former Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong that Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) troops must pull back from Ladakh border and stressed that peace and tranquillity in the border areas are essential for normal ties between India and China.
New Delhi has repeatedly told Beijing that maintaining peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) are key for the overall development of the bilateral ties between the two neighbours.
