Doklam discussed, Pakistan skipped: Here's what happened at the 1 hour meet between Xi and Modi

XIAMEN, CHINA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have decided to build mutual respect and trust to maintain peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Persons familiar with the developments indicated that atmospherics in which PM’s China visit and meeting with Xi were conducted reflected New Delhi’s enhanced stature in the eyes of Beijing post-Dokalam.

“It was a forward-looking approach. The discussions were constructive and forward-looking — where the relationship is going and will be going. It was not a backward-looking, but a forwardlooking conversation,” foreign secretary S Jaishankar told the media here.


The meeting, which lasted for over an hour, reaffirmed “the Astana understanding” and underscored the shared understanding about not allowing “differences to become disputes”, said Jaishankar. The Astana understanding was decided when the two had met on sidelines of SCO Summit this June.

Both leaders also acknowledged the need for a new mechanism and greater confidence building between border and defence personnel to prevent Dokalam-type episodes in future, Jaishankar said. “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 security personnel must maintain strong contact and cooperation and ensure that the sort of situation which happened recently should not recur.”

Although the details of the new mechanism at the level of defence and border personnel were not spelt out by the foreign secretary, Jaishankar said he was referring to the direction going forward. ET had reported last week that India and China would try to put in place a new mechanism at the Modi-Xi meeting to address Dokalam-type disputes. However, New Delhi is not lowering guard as there are fears that transgressions by PLA could recur.

Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua quoted Xi as telling Modi that “healthy and stable relations” between the two countries were in line with the fundamental interests of their people. “China is willing to work with India on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence to improve politicalmutualtrust... andpushSino-Indian ties,” Xinhua reported quoting Xi.