OREANDA-NEWS  Indian First Deputy Foreign Minister Vikram Misri thanked Russia for the opportunity to hold a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.

"To your question about the timing, symbolism and role, all I would like to say at this stage is that we are in Kazan, we are in Russia, and I think we can certainly thank Russia for the opportunity," Misri said during a special briefing answering the question about Russia's role in the last meeting.

The talks held in Kazan are the first bilateral meeting between Modi and Xi Jinping since the clashes between the Indian and Chinese militaries in the Ladakh border region in 2020. The last time the leaders of India and China held a bilateral meeting was in October 2019, when Xi Jinping paid an informal visit to India.

There is a long-standing territorial dispute between India and China over the ownership of almost 60 thousand square kilometers in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, as well as a section of mountainous territory in northern Kashmir. The line of actual control, which replaces the border between the countries in this region, runs in the Ladakh region. In the fall of 1962, this dispute even escalated into a border war.

A new escalation began in Ladakh in May 2020, when a series of clashes between the Chinese and Indian militaries took place in the Pangong Lake area, after which New Delhi and Beijing increased their military presence in the region. In February 2021, most of the troops displaced to the region were withdrawn and the parties continued negotiations. In early September 2022, India and China also conducted a new phase of withdrawal of troops on the border, but did not resolve all issues. At the same time, according to Indian media estimates, 50-60 thousand military personnel have recently been deployed on both sides of the Indian-Chinese border.

Earlier this week, India's first Deputy Foreign Minister Vikram Misri said that India and China had reached an agreement on the procedure for patrolling along the line of actual control in the border area of Ladakh. Later, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that India and China had completed the withdrawal of troops in the region.