What happened when China’s Chanakya and India’s James Bond came face to face, what was the new update on Modi-Jinping and Bali meeting

China claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached a consensus on restoring bilateral ties during their meeting in Bali last year. For the first time, both sides suggested that the meeting between the two leaders during the dinner in Bali involved any significant talks. The claim was made in a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement released after a meeting in Johannesburg between National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and his counterpart Wang Yi, director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party. Both the advisors are attending the BRICS meeting of NSA.

The Indian statement on the Doval-Wang meeting did not include any reference to the claim and instead focused on the ongoing standoff at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which Doval said had eroded the public and political underpinnings of India-China relations. About the meeting held on Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) press release said the NSA conveyed that the situation on the LAC in the western sector of the India-China border since 2020 has undermined strategic trust and the public and political underpinnings of the relationship. The NSA stressed the importance of continuing efforts to fully resolve the situation and restore peace and tranquility in the border areas, so as to remove obstacles to normalcy in bilateral relations. It said that both agreed that India-China bilateral relations are important not only for the two countries but also for the region and the world.

Doval’s meeting with Wang, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, took place here on the sidelines of the Friends of BRICS meeting in South Africa. The Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that during the meeting the NSA pointed out that since 2020 the situation on the LAC in the western sector of the India-China border has undermined strategic trust and the public and political underpinnings of the relationship. The NSA stressed the importance of sustained efforts to fully resolve the situation and restore peace and tranquility in the border areas, so as to remove obstacles to normalcy in bilateral relations.