Modi, Xi agree Doklam-like incident must not recur

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday discussed the Doklam border row which ended last month and agreed that such incidents should not recur.

This was the first one-on-one meeting between Modi and Xi after the over two-month-long military stand-off between the armies of the two countries at Doklam in the Sikkim section of the border.

In more than one hour bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit which ended on Tuesday, both leaders discussed the need to maintain peace and tranquility in their winding border.

"I think one of the important points which was made in the meeting was that peace and tranquility in the border areas was a prerequisite for the further development of the bilateral relationship," Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said here.

He said both the leaders agreed that "more efforts should be made to really enhance and strengthen the mutual level of trust between the two sides.

"It is natural that between large powers there would be areas of difference and it should be handled with mutual respect.

"Efforts should be made to find common ground in those areas... The defence and security personnel must maintain strong contact and cooperation and ensure that the sort of situation which happened recently should not recur," Jaishankar said.

--IANS

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