New Delhi, May 11 (IANS): Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China this week, Chinese Ambassador to India Le Yucheng called for the two countries to establish ground rules for resolving the border dispute.

Describing the upcoming Modi visit as "highlight" of India-China relations this year, Le, in an interview to CNN-IBN news channel, said: "Both sides must set up ground rules to resolve the border dispute."

He said while a sustainable framework of guidelines was being developed, there was a lot more ground work required.

"We remain committed to what we called the 3-step road map. The first step is formulate political perimeters and guiding principles which we finished and now we are standing at the second step to formulate a framework which is very difficult... it takes quite a lot of time," he said. He didn't spell out the third component.

The ambassador also sought Indian government's active response to cutting red tape for the ease of investment flow in India.

Trade deals worth $10 billion could be a potential outcome of the bilaterals between the two countries during the high-level visit, he added.