NEW DELHI: China’s foreign minister arrived in India on Sunday for talks with top officials on a long-standing border row which triggered a brief but bloody war in 1962, officials said.

Yang arrived in Kolkata, where he was to inaugurate a new consulate, and will meet his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Monday.

“I welcome the Chinese foreign minister,” said Mukherjee, according to the Press Trust of India. “We will treat him as an honoured guest.”

Indian officials have said the two sides would discuss ways to boost trade and review ongoing negotiations over their continuing border dispute.

India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres of its Himalayan territory, while Beijing claims the whole of the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which is 90,000 square kilometres.

India and China have so far held 11 rounds of talks to resolve the issue. Mukherjee travelled to Beijing in June in line with stepped-up political and trade contact between the world’s two most populous nations, with China now India’s second-largest trading partner.