MEA confirms Modi and Xi spoke on bilateral ties at Bali meet in 2022

livemint.com:

Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the border crisis during their brief meeting at the Bali Summit of the G20 in 2022. This came after the Chinese foreign ministry stated that the two leaders had reached a “consensus" to improve bilateral ties during their meeting on the sidelines of the Bali Summit in November. It made this claim in a press release detailing the particulars of the conversation between Indian NSA Ajit Doval and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on Tuesday.

This came as a surprise, since neither side had earlier indicated that the two leaders had spoken about substantive outstanding issues in their conversation. In fact, Indian foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra had earlier said that PM Modi and President Xi exchanged courtesies during their Bali meeting in 2022. “With regard to the question relating to the handshake between the Prime Minister and President Xi Jinping, I will only say that Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping who were both attending the G-20 dinner yesterday, hosted by the Indonesian President exchanged courtesies at the conclusion of the dinner," Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra had said after the Bali meet in a briefing to the media.

Arindam Bagchi, Spokesperson of the MEA, confirmed that the two leaders had spoken of the need to stabilise bilateral ties. However, he also stated that India’s perspective was that the situation on the LAC remains a key issue that must be resolved. The meeting between Modi and Xi marked just the second between the two leaders since the Galwan Valley clashes in June 2020, which saw fatalities on both sides.