DHAKA: A Chinese envoy will hold talks in India from Sunday aimed at fixing a dispute about the Himalayan border that divides Asia’s largest nations, part of a push to make progress on the festering row before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits China.

China's special representative Yang Jiechi will visit India from Sunday to Tuesday for the eighteenth round of boundary talks, India’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The talks are the first since Modi took office. The nationalist prime minister is keen to resolve the dispute that has clouded rapidly expanding commercial links, and any progress would shed a positive light on his expected visit to Beijing in May.

Yang’s visit to India is at the invitation of Ajit Doval, Modi’s national security adviser and close aide, known to take a hard line on security issues.

BDST: 1525 HRS, MAR 22, 2015