India on Thursday disclosed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had spoken about the need to stabilise bilateral relations during their brief meeting at the G20 summit in Bali last November.

Till now, India had maintained that only courtesies were exchanged during the handshake.

The disclosure was made by external affairs ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi at the weekly briefing when asked for a response to the Chinese foreign ministry claim that “at the end of last year, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi reached an important consensus on stabilising China-India relations in Bali”.

China said this in a statement issued on the meeting between the then director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China, Wang Yi, and national security adviser Ajit Doval in Johannesburg on Monday. Wang has since been made foreign minister.

The Chinese statement further said: “The two sides should adhere to the strategic judgment of the leaders of the two countries that ‘they do not pose a threat to each other, and they are each other’s development opportunities’, truly implement the consensus on stabilising bilateral relations into specific policies, and translate them into concerted actions by various departments and fields, enhance strategic mutual trust, focus on consensus and cooperation, overcome interference and difficulties, and promote the return of bilateral relations to the track of healthy and stable development at an early date.”

Asked for a response to the statement, Bagchi said: “Prime Minister Modi and President Xi at the conclusion of the dinner hosted by the Indonesian President exchanged courtesies and also spoke of the need to stabilise our bilateral relations. We have steadfastly maintained that the key to the resolution of this whole issue is to resolve the situation along the LAC on the western sector of the India-China boundary and restore peace and tranquillity in the border areas.”

Till China made that statement, India had been maintaining that only courtesies were exchanged at the brief interaction in Bali. In fact, though the interaction had taken place in full view of the media, neither side had put out pictures of the handshake.

Later, asked about the meeting, foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra had sidestepped questions on what was discussed at the meeting, including a specific one on whether there was any conversation on border tensions with Xi.

His one-line response for the slew of questions was: “With regard to the question relating to the handshake between the Prime Minister and President Xi Jinping, I will only say that Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping, who were both attending the G-20 dinner yesterday hosted by the Indonesian President, exchanged courtesies at the conclusion of the dinner.”

This was the first time Modi and Xi were meeting after bilateral relations went into deep freeze after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the Galwan Valley in the summer of 2020.

The disclosure from both capitals comes ahead of two meetings where Modi and Xi are expected to be present — the Brics summit in South Africa and the G20 leaders’ meeting in New Delhi. Between 2020 summer and now, the two have been in the same room at multilateral fora but Bali was the only one where they have engaged publicly.

Visa protest

India on Thursday once again iterated its position on the Chinese issuing stapled visas to people of Arunachal Pradesh after three players of the Indian wushu team were stopped from travelling to China on such visas on Wednesday.

“This is unacceptable and we have lodged our strong protest with the Chinese side reiterating our consistent position on the matter. India reserves the right to suitably respond to such actions,” Bagchi said.

India, he said, has for long held that there should be no discrimination or differential treatment on the basis of domicile or ethnicity in the visa regime for Indian citizens holding valid Indian passports.