Salman Khurshid, Indian foreign minister, will visit Beijing next month in spite of mounting criticism from opposition parties over New Delhi’s conciliatory response to a Chinese military incursion across the disputed Himalayan border.

“We can’t destroy years of investment in our relationship because something goes wrong,” Mr Khurshid told a meeting of business leaders in New Delhi on Thursday. He said it was “absurd” to suggest that the current stand-off with Beijing over a Chinese patrol encamped in Ladakh for the past 10 days would derail the friendship.

Indian politicians and the media, however, have become increasingly agitated about what they see as an attempt by China’s new leaders to test the will of their weaker southern neighbour in an area that was engulfed in the border war launched by China in 1962.