China's Xi Jinping and Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou shook hands for more than a minute and smiled for a mass of reporters before their talks in Singapore in scenes considered unthinkable until recently.
They later sat down across a table from each other, with Xi praising the event as opening a "historic chapter in our relations" and repeating China's oft-expressed desire for eventual reunification.
"We are brothers connected by flesh even if our bones are broken. We are a family whose blood is thicker than water," Xi said.
Despite the apparent warmth, the hour-long meeting's lasting significance remains to be seen.
No agreements were announced between two sides that still refuse to formally recognise each other's legitimacy and Ma's moves face significant opposition at home.
But the encounter is undeniably historic: the previous occasion was in 1945, when Communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong met with China's nationalist President Chiang Kai-shek in a failed reconciliation attempt.
"Behind us there is more than six decades of cross-strait separation. Now before our eyes are the common fruits of the policy of replacing opposition with dialogue," Ma told Xi, in the unexpectedly cordial encounter.
Ma later told reporters he proposed the establishment of a hotline between to the two sides and that Xi responded positively.
He also raised issues sensitive to Taiwan's people, including the arsenal of Chinese missiles aimed at Taiwan, and China's policy of marginalising the island diplomatically.
Xi did not address reporters, leaving that to a lower-ranking official.
Ma has expressed hope the meeting could be a step toward normalising cross-strait relations, but no further plans for closer contact emerged.