India and China on Wednesday signed a new agreement to
strengthen cooperation on trans-border rivers that is aimed at allaying
India’s concerns over new dams on the Brahmaputra and facilitating the
exchange of flood data.
The agreement, signed after
talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart
Li Keqiang, said both countries agreed to strengthen their cooperation
further on the trans-border rivers through the existing Expert Level
Mechanism to provide flood-season data and emergency management.
Under
the new agreement, the Chinese side agreed to provide more flood data
of Brahmaputra river from May to October instead of June to October
that was in vogue under the previous agreements river water agreements
in 2008 and 2010.
India has expressed concerns over
China’s plans to construct more dams which New Delhi fears could
restrict the flows of the Himalayan river flowing from Tibet.
China for its parts assured India that its dams are run of the river projects not designed to hold water.
In
addition to the river water agreement, India and China inked several
agreements on establishment of Nalanda University at Rajgir in Bihar
for which China is one of the participating countries.
The
side also signed agreements to strengthen cultural exchange programme,
Cooperation in Road Transport and Highways, Chinese power equipment
service centres in India and agreements to establishing sister city
relationships between Delhi-Beijing and Bangalore and Chengdu and
Kolkata and Kunming.
No comments:
Post a Comment