Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have held their first formal talks in five years, a sign that icy relations are thawing after a deadly military clash in 2020.

The two leaders met on Wednesday on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan, the Indian government and Chinese state media said.

The meeting comes days after the two countries agreed a deal to resolve a four-year military standoff on their disputed Himalayan border.

Xi and Modi shook hands against a backdrop featuring their national flags, and both stressed the importance of handling their disputes.

The Chinese leader said the two countries were at a crucial stage of development and “should carefully handle differences and disagreements and facilitate each other’s pursuit of development aspirations.”

“It’s important for both sides to shoulder our international responsibilities, set an example for boosting the strength and unity of the developing countries, and contribute to promoting multi-polarisation and democracy in international relations,” Xi said.

“The two leaders affirmed that stable, predictable, and amicable bilateral relations between India and China, as two neighbours and the two largest nations on earth, will have a positive impact on regional and global peace and prosperity,” India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters after the meeting.

The clash in 2020 on the largely undemarcated frontier of Ladakh in the western Himalayas killed 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.

Relations between Beijing and New Delhi were strained as a result, with both sides beefing up their military presence along their shared border.

Modi and Xi had not held formal talks since although they were present at a number of multilateral events. Their last summit talks were held in October 2019 in the southern Indian town of Mamallapuram.

The two spoke briefly on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022. They spoke again on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg in August last year.

Xi skipped the G20 summit hosted by New Delhi the following month, a decision seen as another setback to their relations.

Diplomatic efforts gained momentum in recent months after foreign ministers of the two countries met in July and agreed to step up talks to ease the border tensions.

The standoff had resulted in New Delhi increasing the scrutiny of investments coming from China, blocking direct flights between the two countries and barely issuing any visas to Chinese nationals.

The pact agreed to this week related to military patrols along the frontier. But the announcement on Tuesday did not explain whether it covered the length of the border or just points where the clashes occurred in 2020.

Border tensions are a thorny issue between Beijing and New Delhi. China claims India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh in its entirety, considering it part of its Tibet region, and the two fought a border war in 1962.

Source: Al Jazeera