BEIJING — China on Monday reiterated its plan to build the world's biggest
dam over the Brahmaputra River in Tibet near the Indian border, saying the
planned project has gone through rigorous scientific verification and will not
have any negative impact on downstream countries -- India and Bangladesh.
The project, estimated to cost around USD 137 billion, is
located in the ecologically fragile Himalayan region along a tectonic plate
boundary where earthquakes occur frequently.
China's construction of the hydropower project over in
the Yarlung Tsangpo River (the Tibetan name for Brahmaputra River) downstream
has gone through rigorous scientific verification and will not have any
negative impact on the ecological environment, geology and water resources of
the downstream countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry's new spokesman Guo Jiakun
told a media briefing here.
On the contrary, it will be conducive to downstream
disaster prevention and mitigation and response to climate change to a certain
extent, he said, replying to a question that India has expressed its concerns
over the dam and the issue figured in the Indian officials talks with the
visiting and US National Security Advisor Sullivan.
Sullivan, currently visiting Delhi, held talks with
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday broadly reviewing the
trajectory of the India-US global strategic partnership in the last four years
under the Biden administration.
Sullivan is on a visit to India two weeks ahead of Donald
Trump's inauguration as the 47th president of the US.
Last month, China approved plans to build a dam over the
Brahmaputra River called Yarlung Zangbo in Tibet close to the Indian border.
As per the plan, the massive dam will be built at a huge
gorge in the Himalayan reaches where the Brahmaputra makes a huge U-turn to
flow into Arunachal Pradesh and then to Bangladesh.
In its first reaction to the proposed dam on Jan 3, India
urged China to ensure that the interests of downstream states of the
Brahmaputra are not harmed by activities in upstream areas.
"We will continue to monitor and take necessary
measures to protect our interests," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson
Randhir Jaiswal told media in Delhi.
"As a lower riparian state with established user
rights to the waters of the river, we have consistently expressed, through
expert-level as well as diplomatic channels, our views and concerns to the
Chinese side over mega projects on rivers in their territory," Jaiswal
said.
"These have been reiterated, along with the need for
transparency and consultation with downstream countries, following the latest
report," he said.
"The Chinese side has been urged to ensure that the
interests of downstream states of the Brahmaputra are not harmed by activities
in upstream areas," he added.
On Dec 27, another Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao
Ning, defended China’s plan to build the world's largest dam on the Brahmaputra
River in Tibet, saying the project will not negatively affect lower riparian
states and that safety issues have been addressed through decades of studies.
"The project will not negatively affect the lower
reaches," she said, referring to the concerns in India and Bangladesh,
which are the lower riparian states.
China will continue to maintain communication with
countries at the lower reaches through existing channels and step up
cooperation on disaster prevention and relief for the benefit of the people by
the river," she said.
She said China's hydropower development in the lower
reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River aims to speed up the development of clean
energy and respond to climate change and extreme hydrological disasters.
