Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a bilateral meeting on Tuesday, putting the 73-day military stand-off over Doklam region behind and discussing several issues concerning the border dispute settlement and economic matters.

“Met President Xi Jinping. We held fruitful talks on bilateral relations between India and China,” Modi tweeted before leaving for a two-day visit to Myanmar.

The meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Xiamen, went on for more than an hour in which both sides decided that they “should respect each other and maintain peace and tranquillity in border areas,” said Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar.

India and China got entangled into a bitter military face-off near the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction area atop Doklam plateau in Bhutan on June 18. India had sent 300-400 troops in an effort to stop a construction unit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) from building a road there.

On August 28 both sides decided to mutually disengage their troops and defuse the tension.

For stable relationship

Both leaders also asserted that it is in mutual interest of both countries that a stable bilateral relationship is maintained.

They also reaffirmed that peace and tranquillity in the border areas is a pre-requisite for ties to move forward, according to Jaishankar. “What is required now is the political will to settle the border dispute. Both leaders have to cajole their own domestic constituencies and find solution on the issue. It will require a certain amount of give and take.

“Because redrawing of the borders will require constitutional adjustments,” said Nandan Unnikrishnan, Vice-President of Observer Research Foundation, a foreign policy think-tank.

Both sides also agreed that defence forces of both countries must establish and maintain “strong contacts and cooperation” to prevent a Doklam-like situation occurring in future, Jaishankar said.

Common ground

The Foreign Secretary also added that it is “natural that between neighbours and large powers that there would be areas of difference, but where there is an area of difference it should be handled with mutual respect and efforts should be made to find common ground in addressing those areas.”

China also once again urged India to align economic policies and cooperation in areas of trade and investment.

According to Srikanth Kondapalli, Professor of Chinese Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), China’s relationship with India could not transcend beyond trade.

“We have been talking about economic issues since 1988 but progress in bilateral relations is yet to pick up in a healthy manner. We need to resolve the territory issue first,” Kondapalli said.

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