BEIJING: Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and Chinese president
Xi Jinping are expected to meet on Friday at an informal leaders' meeting of
BRICS countries during the upcoming G20 Summit in Hamburg, Chinese vice foreign minister Li Baodong said.
The two leaders met during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Asthana last month, but this is the first time they will be meeting the recent border stand-off.
The two leaders might try to de-escalate the tension on the
Sikkim border as they did during Xi's visit to India, which saw a stand-off at the Chuman border in western sector in September 2014.
Li said that the meeting of leaders will be chaired by Xi as China holds the rotating chairmanship of BRICS this year. He said the Chinese president will hold several bilateral meetings with leaders of different countries. But it is not clear if India and China will also have a bilateral meeting. Modi is expected to visit the Chinese city of Xiamen to attend the meeting of BRICS leaders in September.
On its part, the Chinese foreign ministry tried to drive a wedge between India and
Bhutan saying that Indian troops had entered the disputed
Doklam area without Thimpu's knowledge. China and Bhutan do not have diplomatic relationship, and it is unclear where the ministry got this information.
"The Bhutan side does not know previously that Indian troops entered Doklam which is not in line with what India claims," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang, said on Monday. He was trying to contradict an Indian statement that the Royal Bhutan Army had on June 16 protested against the PLA's construction activities in Doklam. The Indian Army came in Bhutan's support two days later and asked China to stop altering the status quo.
India was "using the excuse of Bhutan's interests to infringe upon China's territory" and suggested India had sent its troops into Bhutan without the latter's permission. The ministry struck to its arguments based on the 1890 Sikkim-Tibet treaty although New Delhi has rejected Chinese arguments supporting their claim on the Doklam area in Bhutan.
Geng said India should now withdraw troops from the disputed area and create the right conditions to resolve the border stand-off.
"By entering into the Chinese territory and obstructing Chinese troops normal activities, India violated the existing convention on the boundary and basic principle of the
international law and obstructed peace and stability of the boundary area," he said, adding. "We require the Indian side to withdraw their troops to the Indian side of the boundary and create conditions for the restoration of the peace and stability in the relevant areas".