Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping engaged in a brief conversation at the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. They shook hands and greeted each other.
In a video shared by news agency ANI, PM Modi was seen talking to the Chinese president as they headed for the briefing of BRICS leaders.
On Wednesday, the prime minister and Jinping had attended the plenary session but stood apart during the photograph session.
Last November, PM Modi had shook hands with the Chinese president and interacted briefly at a formal dinner for G20 leaders in Bali, which was their first face-to-face meeting in public since the onset of military standoff in Ladakh in 2020.
The relations between India and China are strained since the Galwan valley clash between the two armies in June 2020. Both the countries have held 19 rounds of military-level talks to resolve the situation.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Modi welcomed the expansion of BRICS which invited Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) into the fold.
“India has always supported the expansion of BRICS. India has always believed that adding new members will strengthen BRICS as an organisation”, Modi said at the briefing of BRICS leaders in the South African city.
At the plenary session of BRICS Summit on Wednesday, PM Modi said that India had given a lot of importance to the countries of Global South under its G20 Presidency and lauded South Africa for the initiative as the chair of the BRICS summit.
“We welcome the move to give special importance to the countries of the Global South in BRICS under the chairmanship of South Africa. This is not just the aspiration, but also the need of the present times. India has also given importance to this subject under its G20 presidency”, ANI quoted the PM as saying.
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