(Reuters) – A standoff between Indian and Chinese soldiers overshadowed a visit to New Delhi by China’s President Xi Jinping on Thursday, with a $20 billion investment pledge eclipsed by robust comments from India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the dispute.
Modi and Xi emerged from a long meeting to address a news conference shortly after officials confirmed that the soldiers had pulled back from their positions in a barren area of the Ladakh plateau in the western Himalayas claimed by both nations.
“I raised our serious concern over repeated incidents along the border,” said a stern-sounding Modi, a nationalist who was elected in May partly on promises to build a more assertive India.