New Delhi, Aug 24 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to direct relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation alongside the Line of Actual Control (LAC), official sources said on Thursday. 

Briefing the media on the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra when asked about the interaction between Modi and Xi, said that both the leaders agreed to direct relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation.

PM Modi underlined that maintenance of peace, tranquillity in border areas and respecting LAC are essential for normalisation of India-China ties, Kwatra said.

During his conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Prime Minister highlighted India's concerns on unresolved issues along LAC, the Foreign Secretary said.

"It was a conversation on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit where PM Modi talked about the LAC tensions. It was not a formal bilateral," Kwatra told reporters.

Meanwhile, he said that a major outcome of the BRICS summit was the decision of the BRICS leaders to expand its membership to include six new members.

These six members are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. On the sidelines of BRICS summit, Modi had interactions with other BRICS leaders also, Kwatra said.

"PM Modi highlighted that the BRICS Business Forum is one of the key pillars of Intra-BRICS partnership. He spoke about an important element, the need to develop resilient and inclusive supply chains. And, the importance of mutual trust and transparency in the intra-BRICS country," Kwatra told reporters.

"He (Modi) wrote to the leaders of G20 about the inclusion of the African Union in the G20. We have strongly proposed it as a permanent member of the G20. So, it should probably become G21 if it all goes through," the Foreign Secretary said.

"The prime minister spoke of something which is deeply at the heart of South Africa and many African countries, the protections of the big cats, the five big ones in South Africa under the International Big Cat Alliance. He established something important for all the BRICS countries, a repository of traditional medicines among the BRICS countries," the foreign secretary said further.