India takes up Himalayan river cooperation with China

India today asked China to build further on the cooperation of sharing data on Brahmaputra and Sutluj rivers, which originate in Tibet and are major sources of irrigation downstream.

Praising the giant strides made by China in its economic development, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia briefly touched upon India's interest in increasing cooperation over inter state-rivers originating from Tibet. Ahluwalia is attending the first Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) here.

"I take this opportunity to also record our appreciation for the hydrological data that the Chinese Government provides us on the Brahmaputra and Satluj rivers during flood season", he said.

"It would be very good to build further on this tradition of cooperation. This should be a subject that unites us rather than divides us," he said.

Water issues constituted a major topic for discussions in one of the three sub-groups formed for discussion in today's Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED).

But Indian officials said the discussions mainly centred on pricing system of water in urban and rural areas, technology issues relating to water supply systems in cities, water saving technologies and irrigation.

The discussion on water issues was piloted by Dhruv Vijay Singh, Secretary Ministry of Water Resources.