The 16th BRICS Summit commenced this week in the Russian city of Kazan, bringing together dozens of nations seeking to form a power bloc against Western powers.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke Wednesday on the sidelines of the summit, a new display of cooperation following diplomatic and unorthodox military skirmishes between the Asian countries that erupted in 2020.
Modi “underscored the importance of properly handling differences and disputes and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquility” during the BRICS summit conversation, according to the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Similarly, Chinese state media reported that Xi told Modi that the two feuding nations “should strengthen communication and cooperation, properly manage differences and disagreements.”
The amicable exchange is being interpreted as a consequential thawing of relations between the two powers after years of entanglement over border concerns.
Chinese and Indian soldiers came to lethal blows in the Galwan Valley in May 2020 following a dispute over infrastructure development that China claimed violated their territorial rights.
The skirmishes, fought with blunt melee weapons due to a 1996 ban on firearms near the border, ultimately resulted in 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers killed.
Despite attempts at de-escalation efforts on both sides, fights broke out again in 2022 and tensions have remained high ever since.
A China-India peace initiative would be a political win for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hosted the BRICS summit as a show of strength for Russia — displaying the nation’s ability to peddle influence despite sanctions implemented by Western powers over its invasion of Ukraine.
BRICS is an international political bloc aiming to generate influence outside the sphere of the United States and other Western powers. Its name is an acronym of the alliance’s founding members: Brazil, Russia, India, China — and later South Africa.
Member states of the organization now include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Over 20 heads of state are attending the summit, joined by government envoys of an additional 16 countries.
The BRICS bloc is the main geopolitical rival to the G7 bloc consisting of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Italy, France, and Germany.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Russia on Wednesday with plans to deliver remarks at the summit.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the secretary-general, told reporters on Tuesday that Guterres will “reaffirm his well-known positions on the war in Ukraine and the conditions for just peace based on the UN Charter, international law, and the resolutions of the United Nations.”
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Ukraine decried Guterres’s decision to attend the summit in Kazan despite declining invitations to its upcoming Global Peace Summit.
“The UN Secretary General declined Ukraine’s invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland. He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. “This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN’s reputation.”