India foreign minister Salman Khurshid to visit China

Image source, AFP

Image caption, Mr Khurshid says that he wants to stimulate dialogue with China

India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid has said he will visit China in May amid tensions near the de facto border in the Himalayas.

Mr Khurshid's trip comes ahead of a scheduled visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to India.

It comes at a time when India has asked China to withdraw troops it says have moved into a territory near the border.

China denies violating Indian territory. The two sides are holding talks to resolve the row.

"I believe we have a mutual interest and we should not destroy years of contribution we have put together," Mr Khurshid was quoted by AFP news agency as telling reporters on the sidelines of a business event.

"I think it is a good thing that we are having a dialogue."

Mr Khurshid said he would be visiting China on 9 May, ahead of Mr Li's visit on 20 May for his first overseas trip, reports say.

India says Chinese troops erected a camp on its side of the ill-defined frontier in Ladakh region last week.

China has dismissed reports of the incursion as media speculation.

The two countries dispute several Himalayan border areas and fought a brief war in 1962. Tensions flare up from time to time.

They have held numerous rounds of border talks, but all have been unsuccessful so far.

The 大象传媒's Soutik Biswas in Delhi says there has not been a fatality in skirmishes along the undefined India-China boundary since 1967, but the memories of the crushing defeat inflicted by the Chinese on India in the 1962 war have not faded from the minds of some Indians.