As Prime Minister Narendra Modi lands in South Africa on Tuesday to attend the XVth BRICS summit in Johannesburg, all eyes are on whether he will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an effort to resolve the three-year-old stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
On Monday, speculation over the meeting grew, after Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said that the PM’s itinerary was still being worked out, but didn’t explicitly deny the possibility that the two leaders would meet on the sidelines of various BRICS events, beginning with a Leaders’ Retreat on Tuesday evening. Reports last week, when LAC commanders held talks on two occasions and issued a cordial joint statement as they sought a breakthrough on issues like disengagement in remaining Ladakh sectors, de-escalation, and patrolling rights, had also fuelled the speculation.
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