CNN
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese chief Xi Jinping agreed to “intensity efforts” to deescalate tensions at their contested border, in a uncommon face-to-face assembly since a lethal conflict strained relations greater than three years in the past.

Modi and Xi, who’re in Johannesburg for the BRICS financial group assembly, had a dialog on the sidelines of the summit, India’s Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra informed reporters Thursday, at some point after the Chinese leader mysteriously skipped a key event.

Face-to-face conferences between the leaders of India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, are uncommon.

The disputed border has lengthy been a supply of friction between New Delhi and Beijing, with the agitation spilling right into a 1962 battle that led to a Chinese victory. In the following years, an ill-defined de facto border referred to as the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has break up the 2 nuclear powers.

“(Modi) underlined that the maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas, and observing and respecting the LAC are essential for the normalization of the India-China relationship,” Kwatra mentioned.

In a press release Friday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentioned the 2 leaders “had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on current China-India relations” amongst different pursuits.

“President Xi stressed that improving China-India relations serves the common interests of the two countries and peoples,” it added. “The two sides should bear in mind the overall interests of their bilateral relations and handle properly the border issue so as to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border region.”

The assembly, which will likely be seen as a step towards mending their fraught relationship, comes one week after India and China engaged of their nineteenth spherical of talks to resolve their border difficulty.

“The two sides had a positive, constructive and in-depth discussion on the resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in the Western Sector,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs mentioned in a press release.

Modi and Xi attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan in September final yr, however didn’t have interaction diplomatically. They had a short dialog weeks afterward the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ assembly in Bali, Indonesia.

Tensions between the 2 international locations soured considerably after a lethal conflict in Aksai Chin-Ladakh in 2020, and escalated final December when a brawl between troops from either side within the Tawang sector of India’s northeastern territory of Arunachal Pradesh resulted in minor accidents.

In April, India’s protection minister informed his Chinese counterpart that violations of their shared border erode the “entire basis” of relations between the 2 neighbors.

Why do India and China spar on the border?

Since the 2020 conflict, India has taken a number of steps to push again towards perceived threats from China, together with banning social media platform TikTok and different well-known Chinese apps, saying they pose a “threat to sovereignty and integrity,” whereas additionally shifting to dam Chinese telecoms giants Huawei and ZTE from supplying its 5G community.

More just lately, the 2 international locations have seemingly cracked down on reporters and have few or no accredited journalists on the bottom in one another’s territory.

Amid rising nationalism in each international locations, issues in New Delhi of Beijing’s growing assertiveness has additionally bolstered India’s relationship with the United States, together with by way of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad – a grouping of Japan, the US, India and Australia extensively seen as a counterweight to China.

China earlier this yr boycotted a G20 tourism assembly hosted by India within the Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir, citing its opposition “to holding any kind of G20 meetings in disputed territory.” India and Pakistan each declare the disputed Kashmir area in its entirety.

India’s determination to host this yr’s SCO nearly meant that Modi and Xi didn’t have a chance for a face-to-face assembly. Xi can also be anticipated to attend the G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi subsequent month.