BEIJING: China on Monday reiterated its plan to construct the world’s greatest dam over the Brahmaputra River in Tibet close to the Indian border, saying the deliberate undertaking has gone by rigorous scientific verification and won’t have any destructive affect on downstream nations — India and Bangladesh. The undertaking, estimated to price round USD 137 billion, is positioned within the ecologically fragile Himalayan area alongside a tectonic plate boundary the place earthquakes happen steadily.
“On the hydropower undertaking within the decrease reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, China has made its place clear. Let me reiterate that the choice to construct the undertaking was made after rigorous scientific analysis and the undertaking is not going to have a destructive affect on the ecological atmosphere, geological situations and the rights and pursuits associated to water sources of downstream nations,” Overseas Ministry’s new spokesman Guo Jiakun instructed a media briefing right here.
“Reasonably, it would, to some extent, assist with their catastrophe prevention and discount and local weather response,” he mentioned, replying to a query that India has expressed its issues over the dam and the difficulty figured within the Indian officers talks with the visiting US Nationwide Safety Advisor Sullivan.
Sullivan, presently visiting Delhi, held talks with Exterior Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday broadly reviewing the trajectory of the India-US world strategic partnership within the final 4 years below the Biden administration.
Sullivan is on a go to to India two weeks forward of Donald Trump’s inauguration because the 47th president of the US. Final month, China accredited plans to construct a dam over the Brahmaputra River known as Yarlung Zangbo in Tibet near the Indian border. As per the plan, the large dam might be constructed at an enormous gorge within the Himalayan reaches the place the Brahmaputra makes an enormous U-turn to movement into Arunachal Pradesh after which to Bangladesh.
In its first response to the proposed dam on Jan 3, India urged China to make sure that the pursuits of downstream states of the Brahmaputra are usually not harmed by actions in upstream areas. “We are going to proceed to observe and take needed measures to guard our pursuits,” Exterior Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal instructed media in Delhi.
“As a decrease riparian state with established consumer rights to the waters of the river, we have now persistently expressed, by expert-level in addition to diplomatic channels, our views and issues to the Chinese language facet over mega tasks on rivers of their territory,” Jaiswal mentioned. “These have been reiterated, together with the necessity for transparency and session with downstream nations, following the most recent report,” he mentioned.
“The Chinese language facet has been urged to make sure that the pursuits of downstream states of the Brahmaputra are usually not harmed by actions in upstream areas,” he added. On Dec 27, one other Overseas Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, defended China’s plan to construct the world’s largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, saying the undertaking is not going to negatively have an effect on decrease riparian states and that issues of safety have been addressed by a long time of research.
“The undertaking is not going to negatively have an effect on the decrease reaches,” she mentioned, referring to the issues in India and Bangladesh, that are the decrease riparian states. China will proceed to take care of communication with nations on the decrease reaches by current channels and step up cooperation on catastrophe prevention and aid for the good thing about the folks by the river,” she mentioned.
She mentioned China’s hydropower growth within the decrease reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River goals to hurry up the event of unpolluted power and reply to local weather change and excessive hydrological disasters.
