China today said the border dispute with India has been "contained", likening negotiations over the vexed issue to "climbing a mountain".
Addressing his annual press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's legislature, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said a warm welcome awaited Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he makes his first visit to the country later this year.
"Last September, President Xi Jinping made a historic visit to India. Picture of the two leaders working at a spinning wheel in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister, has spread far and wide in China," Mr Wang said in response to a question from PTI about Sino-Indian relations at a nationally-televised crowded press conference.
Terming the China-India boundary problem as a "legacy of history," Mr Wang said, "We have worked on it for many years and made some progress in the boundary negotiations.
"This is all the more reason that we do more to strengthen China-India cooperation so that we can enable and facilitate the settlement of the boundary question," he said.
"Chinese dragon and Indian elephant should join in a duet to work for the early revitalisation of two ancient civilisations, common prosperity of the two emerging markets and amicable co-existence of two large neighbours," he said.
In a reciprocal gesture of the warm welcome accorded to him during his visit to India last year, President Xi is expected to take PM Modi to his native province Shaanxi and its capital Xian to showcase its development.
The talks will be held between Special Representatives, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.
However, India asserts that the dispute covers the western side of the border spanning to about 4,000 kms including Aksai Chin area in Ladakh occupied by China in the 1962 border war.
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