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 India's external affairs minister S M Krishna | ||||||
NEW DELHI - Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna will visit China next week, the foreign ministry announced Saturday, to boost ties between the emerging giants whose relations have become increasingly prickly.
Krishna will hold wide-ranging talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi and call on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during the four-day visit.
"The focus is to impart momentum to ties between the two nations. Both sides have the maturity to narrow areas of divergence and increase areas of convergence," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told reporters.
The visit coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China, Prakash said.
The ministers will review negotiations over a long-simmering border row as well as efforts to expand trade ties and the possibility of greater market access for Indian goods to reduce a 15.8-billion-dollar trade deficit with China, he said.
Bilateral trade stood at 43 billion dollars in 2009 and is expected to reach 60 billion dollars in 2010.
India and China have held several rounds of talks to resolve the border issue which triggered a brief but bloody war in 1962.
Prakash said India will also reiterate its objections to Beijing's practice of issuing special Chinese visas for residents of Indian-administered Kashmir, which is viewed by China as disputed territory.
For the past several months, Kashmiris applying to the Chinese embassy in New Delhi have received visas issued on loose sheets of paper and stapled -- rather than stamped -- into their passports.
In October, India lodged a protest against the practice that has resulted in some Kashmiris being prevented from boarding their flights by Indian immigration officials on the grounds that the visas are not valid.
Krishna will hold wide-ranging talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi and call on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during the four-day visit.
"The focus is to impart momentum to ties between the two nations. Both sides have the maturity to narrow areas of divergence and increase areas of convergence," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told reporters.
The visit coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China, Prakash said.
The ministers will review negotiations over a long-simmering border row as well as efforts to expand trade ties and the possibility of greater market access for Indian goods to reduce a 15.8-billion-dollar trade deficit with China, he said.
Bilateral trade stood at 43 billion dollars in 2009 and is expected to reach 60 billion dollars in 2010.
India and China have held several rounds of talks to resolve the border issue which triggered a brief but bloody war in 1962.
Prakash said India will also reiterate its objections to Beijing's practice of issuing special Chinese visas for residents of Indian-administered Kashmir, which is viewed by China as disputed territory.
For the past several months, Kashmiris applying to the Chinese embassy in New Delhi have received visas issued on loose sheets of paper and stapled -- rather than stamped -- into their passports.
In October, India lodged a protest against the practice that has resulted in some Kashmiris being prevented from boarding their flights by Indian immigration officials on the grounds that the visas are not valid.
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