BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held “candid and in-depth” talks to ease tensions along their disputed frontier, Beijing said Friday, after a rare face-to-face encounter between the two leaders.

Relations between the world’s two most populous countries have been in deep freeze since a deadly Himalayan border clash that killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops in 2020.

Tens of thousands of soldiers have since been massed along both sides of the border. They remain despite 19 rounds of talks between top military officials of both countries.

The leaders met Thursday while attending the BRICS summit in South Africa in what China’s foreign ministry characterised as a “candid and in-depth exchange of views”.

“President Xi stressed that improving China-India relations serves the common interests of the two countries and peoples,” a ministry spokesman said Friday.

“The two sides should bear in mind the overall interests of their bilateral relations and handle properly the border issue so as to jointly safeguard peace.”

India’s foreign secretary said Modi had highlighted unresolved issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that divides India’s Himalayan region of Ladakh from Chinese territory, where the deadly 2020 clash took place.

“Modi underlined that... observing and respecting the LAC are essential for normalising India-China relationship,” Vinay Kwatra told reporters Thursday.

India has been wary of its northern neighbour’s growing military assertiveness and disputes over the two Asian giants’ 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) shared frontier have been a perennial source of tension.