NEW DELHI: A standoff between Indian and Chinese soldiers overshadowed a visit to New Delhi by Chinese 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 reporters soon after officials confirmed that soldiers had pulled back from their positions on a plateau in the western Himalayas that is claimed by both nations.

“I raised our serious concern over repeated incidents along the border,” said a stern Modi, with Xi sitting to his right.

“There should be peace in our relations and in the borders. If this happens, we can realize true potential of our relations,” added Modi, a nationalist elected in May partly on promises to build a more assertive India.

Dozens of soldiers from both sides had faced off on the Ladakh plateau for over a week in a dispute about infrastructure works near the de facto border, where the two countries fought a brief war in 1962.

Raising hopes for a new push to resolve their territorial differences, Modi called for an early border settlement with China. The two sides have held 17 rounds of border talks since the early 1990s without making significant progress. Modi has yet to appoint a special envoy to restart the talks.

“We have to address the boundary question very soon,” Modi said, urging “clarification” of the Line of Actual Control — the front line where fighting ended.

In his comments, Xi played down the tensions and agreed with Modi that they should work to settle the border question, using language China has used in the past.

“Sometimes there might be certain incidents, but the two sides are fully capable of acting promptly to effectively manage the situation,” he said.

“A warlike state, however big it may be, will eventually perish,” he said in a speech, adding that China believed its neighbors were key to its wellbeing.