PM Modi, Chinese President Xi shake hands at side event at G20 Summit
Bali, Nov 15: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands Tuesday at a side event at the G20 Summit here, a gesture sparking interest because of the strained bilateral relations over a border clash two years back.
A live video feed for the media from the welcome dinner hosted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo for G20 delegates showed the brief exchange between the two leaders.
There had been some speculation over a possible bilateral meeting between the two leaders on the margins of the Group of 20 Summit, which began Tuesday. But the agenda made known by both sides so far does not mention such a meeting.
Prime Minister Modi and President Xi, who were both attending the G20 dinner hosted by Indonesian President Widodo, exchanged courtesies at the conclusion of the dinner, official sources said when asked about the interaction between the two leaders.
Since the June 2020 Galwan Valley clash in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed there has been no one-on-one meetings between the two leaders.
India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) are important for the overall development of bilateral ties.
In September, Prime Minister Modi and President Xi came face-to-face at the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Uzbek city of Samarkand for the first time since the start of the border standoff in eastern Ladakh.
No separate meeting is believed to have taken place between them there, though it is presumed they would have exchanged pleasantries.
In Bali, the handshake took place towards the end of the dinner. The two greeted each other as Xi walked by. They shook hands and the video showed a brief relaxed conversation, before the camera moved elsewhere and the transmission ended.
The dinner was held at the Garuda Wisnu Kencana cultural park in a somewhat informal setting. G20 leaders watched dance performances as they dined.
Xi had a bilateral meeting Monday with US President Joe Biden, where the two appeared to have struck a conciliatory note, amid tensions over self-ruled Taiwan and other issues.
Modi is here to attend the G20 Summit at the invitation of Indonesian President Widodo. India is currently part of the G20 Troika (current, previous, and incoming G20 Presidencies) comprising Indonesia, Italy, and India.
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at G20 dinner hosted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Bali, Indonesia.
— ANI (@ANI) November 15, 2022
(Source: Reuters) pic.twitter.com/nZorkq4R1Y
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
