Xi Jinping agrees 'in principle' to PM Modi's suggestions on improving ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed "in principle to the suggestions made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting here on Wednesday to improve India-China relations, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

In his meeting with Modi on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit in the Russian city of Kazan, Xi said China-India relations are essentially a question of how the two large developing countries and neighbours, each with a 1.4-billion-strong population, treat each other.

Xi said China and India should maintain a sound strategic perception of each other and work together to find the "right and bright path" for big, neighbouring countries to live in harmony and develop side by side.

The two leaders commended the important progress the two sides recently made through intensive communication on resolving the issues in the border areas.

Modi made suggestions on improving and developing the relationship, which Xi agreed to in principle," Xinhua news agency reported without elaborating.

Development is now the biggest shared goal of China and India, Xi said, adding the two sides should continue to uphold their important understandings, including that China and India are each other's development opportunity rather than threat, and cooperation partners rather than competitors.

This was their first meeting in five years.

The Chinese news agency claimed that both leaders agreed to prevent specific disagreements from affecting the overall relationship. The two leaders were of the view that their meeting was constructive and carried great significance.

They agreed to view and handle China-India relations from a strategic height, and long-term perspective, and contribute to maintaining regional and global peace and prosperity and to advancing multiplicity in the world, the news agency said.

Earlier state-run CGTN quoted Xi telling Modi that India and China should strengthen communication and cooperation and properly manage their differences and disagreements.

Xi said China and India should facilitate each other's pursuit of development aspirations.

The meeting took place against the backdrop of the two countries reaching an agreement to resolve the four-year-long military standoff at eastern Ladakh, which resulted in the freezing of the ties.

Xi said that as time-honoured civilisations, large developing countries and important members of the Global South, China and India both stand at a crucial phase of our respective modernisation endeavours.

The best way to advance the fundamental interests of the two countries and two peoples is for both to keep to the trend of history and the right direction of bilateral relations, he said.

He said the two countries should shoulder their international responsibility, set an example in boosting the strength and unity of developing countries and contribute to promoting a multipolar world and greater democracy in international relations, the CGTN report said.