BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping would make his first state visit to India next week, officials said on Tuesday, as Beijing sought to allay fears it was “encircling its neighbour”.

The announcement came just a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to take ties to a “new level” with Japan, a move seen as an attempt to shore up regional alliances to counter China’s increasing might.

Mr Xi’s four-nation trip begins on Thursday in the central Asian state of Tajikistan, before going on to the South Asian island states of the Maldives and Sri Lanka, and culminating in India, the Chinese foreign ministry said on its website.

It did not give specific dates but said the tour would finish on September 19.

Ties between India and China have long been clouded by suspicion over disputed territory in the Himalayas, which saw a brief border war in 1962.

Beijing has also moved to establish port facilities elsewhere in South Asia, in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, raising fears of encirclement among some Indians.

Chinese assistant foreign minister Liu Jianchao dismissed such fears at a press briefing on Tuesday, saying: “China has not and will not encircle India.”

Liu added that “both sides hope they will find acceptable solutions as soon as possible” to the border issue, without giving details.

Also on Tuesday, Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval met Mr Xi in Beijing, saying that he carried a letter from Mr Modi, and extended an invitation to the prime minister’s hometown.

“When it was decided you will be visiting India, Prime Minister Modi was extremely keen that you come to his hometown of Vadnagar,” Doval added.

China is India’s biggest trading partner, with two-way commerce totalling close to $70 billion. But India’s trade deficit with China has soared to more than $40 billion from just $1 billion in 2001-02, Indian figures show.

Beijing sent Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Delhi in June soon after rightwing Modi’s landslide election victory, delivering a message that India and China were “natural partners”.

After meeting Mr Xi at a summit of the BRICS emerging economic powers in Brazil in July, Mr Modi called for increased Chinese investment in India, where economic growth has slowed in recent years.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2014