Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday appeared to break protocol during his opening remarks at the BRICS Summit at Bharat Mandapam when he stopped his speech midway to ask Chinese President Xi Jinping if “it is okay?”. As the camera zoomed out from the leaders seated at Bharat Mandapam, it was unclear what the source of the “discomfort” was.
The Hindi arm of The Indian Express was the first to report that PM Modi halted his speech after noticing that Chinese President Xi Jinping looked uncomfortable.
The footage of the speech, shared by Doordarshan, shows the incident occurring between the 4:30 and 5:00-minute marks.
The leaders later met for a bilateral summit, marking their first meeting in seven years on Indian soil. Xi had last visited India in 2019.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the two leaders “reaffirmed that both countries should take a strategic and long-term perspective of their ties.” Prime Minister Modi emphasised that “differences should not become disputes” and that both sides must be guided by “mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest.”
PM Modi also stressed that peace and tranquillity in the border areas remain an essential basis for the continued development of bilateral relations and underlined the need for both sides to observe existing agreements and understandings on border-related issues.
“The two leaders expressed commitment to a fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question proceeding from the political perspective of their overall bilateral relations and the long-term interests of the two peoples,” the MEA said.
Xi, during the meeting, said China and India should view their relationship from a strategic perspective while keeping the long-term development of bilateral ties in mind.
“China-India relations have developed, with both sides keeping in mind the long-term development of bilateral relations from a strategic perspective,” Xi said.