Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to hold their first bilateral meeting in five years on Wednesday, according to Indian officials. This meeting comes after the two nations reached an agreement concerning their disputed border.

The meeting is scheduled to take place during the three-day BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, indicating a potential thaw in relations between the two neighbors after their military standoff in 2020.

"There will be a bilateral meeting held between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping... on the sidelines of the BRICS summit," senior Indian foreign ministry official Vikram Misri said late Tuesday.

The two leaders last engaged in formal face-to-face talks during Xi's visit to Modi in Mahabalipuram, India, in October 2019. Months later, in 2020, relations deteriorated sharply following a skirmish along their disputed border in the high-altitude Himalayan region of Ladakh, resulting in the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.

China and India grew to be rivals after each side accused the other of attempting to encroach on territory along their unofficial boundary, known as the Line of Actual Control. Since the tensions grew, both countries have withdrawn tens of thousands of troops and agreed to refrain from sending patrols into a narrow buffer zone.

However, India announced on Monday that "an agreement has been reached on patrolling arrangements" with China, which could help ease the military standoff.

Misri stated that both sides agreed to monitor the Ladakh region to ensure there are no violations. He noted that the agreement emerged from multiple rounds of discussions through diplomatic and military channels over the past few weeks, with the two sides now set to take the “next steps on this.”

Modi and Xi had brief encounters in Bali, Indonesia, during the G20 leaders' meeting in 2022, and again in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2023, but India has insisted that relations cannot improve until the 'pre-military standoff status quo' at their Ladakh border is reinstated.

Why it matters

Relations between the two countries have been tense since the 2020 clashes, affecting both diplomatic and economic interactions, leading New Delhi to restrict Chinese investments in India. Since then, more than 30 rounds of talks have taken place to de-escalate the situation.

In September, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's Minister of External Affairs, indicated that “up to 75% of the disengagement issues” have been resolved with China, with the remaining challenges focusing on patrolling and the deployment of personnel and weapons along the border.

Earlier in October, Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi noted that while the situation at the border currently appears “stable,” it is “not normal.” However, he remarked that “positive signals” are emerging from diplomatic talks, adding that execution on the ground relies on the military commanders of both nations.