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A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Sushant Singh, MK Venu, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Tanweer Alam, Siddharth Varadarajan and Seema Chishti | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK 

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Snapshot of the day

October 23, 2024

Siddharth Varadarajan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had their first formal bilateral interaction in five years – on the sidelines of the BRICS summit at Kazan in Russia today. Both sides issued statements that sought to put the nasty standoff in eastern Ladakh behind them and focus on the road ahead but India seems to be making rather more of the recent deal than China.

The Indian statement begins by foregrounding the deal:

Welcoming the recent agreement for complete disengagement and resolution of issues that arose in 2020 in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister Modi underscored the importance of properly handling differences and disputes and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquility. [emphasis added]

But the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson preferred to be laconic and non-specific:

The two leaders commended the important progress the two sides had recently made through intensive communication on resolving the relevant issues in the border areas. [emphasis added]

This difference lends credence to defence analyst Praveen Sawhney’s assessment that India is perhaps exaggerating the significance of the disengagement agreement for domestic political considerations.

While it is clear that there are differences, the two leaders have agreed that their Special Representatives should resume their (endless and so far, completely