Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday shared a virtual platform with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since the face-off along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh — at the 20th Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Heads of State hosted by Russia.

Given the virtual format, there was no scope for any meeting on the sidelines that have in the past helped break deadlocks. And, since the SCO does not encourage bilateral issues being raised at its meetings, the Prime Minister made no direct reference to the LAC situation but stressed the need for respecting each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity while increasing connectivity in the world.

Addressing the meeting in Hindi, Modi appeared to tick off Pakistan — again without naming it — when he described as unfortunate the repeated attempts to raise bilateral issues in the SCO in violation of its charter and the Shanghai spirit.

This was a reference to Pakistan’s national security adviser Moeed Peerzada having the “new” map of the country in the background during an SCO meeting of NSAs in August, prompting Indian NSA Ajit Doval to leave the session in protest.

Pakistan’s “new” map shows Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir as one territory, which has been described as “Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir”.

Earlier, Pakistan used to describe Jammu and Kashmir as Indian-occupied Kashmir. The map also states that the region is disputed territory, whose “final status is to be decided in line with relevant UNSC resolutions”. Further, the international boundary on the eastern side has been extended up to the undefined frontier.