G20 Summit: PM Modi, Xi Jinping exchange greetings for the first time since Ladakh crisis

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday exchanged greetings at the G20 dinner in Bali, Indonesia. This is the first time both leaders have exchanged greetings since the tension broke out at the border in Ladakh in 2020. There were expectations that both leaders could meet at the SCO Summit held between 15 and 16 September 2022 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan but that did not happen. 

The border crisis began in April 2020 after the Chinese PLA advanced into areas claimed by India. Both countries held multiple rounds of talks to achieve the status quo ante at several friction points. 

India has on many occasions made it clear that its relationship with China is not normal and it cannot be unless there is peace and tranquillity in the border areas. 

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently said that unless there is peace and tranquillity in the border areas, unless there is an observance of agreements and no unilateral attempt made to change the status quo, India's relationship with China cannot be normal and is not normal. 

In August this year, Jaishankar said that right now, India and China are going through a very difficult phase mainly because Beijing violated border pacts signed way back in the 1990s.

"We have agreements with China going back to the 1990s, which prohibit bringing mass troops in the border area. They (China) have disregarded that. You know what happened in the Galwan valley," the EAM said during a community event in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Earlier today, PM Modi met US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the margins of the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in Bali. In a statement, the Prime Minister's Office said PM Modi and Biden reviewed the continuing deepening of India- US strategic partnership including cooperation in future-oriented sectors like critical and emerging technologies, advanced computing, artificial intelligence, etc.

Both leaders expressed satisfaction with the close cooperation between India and US in new groupings such as the Quad, I2U2, etc.