When Chinese President Hu Jintao reaches New Delhi on November 20, India will convey its concerns on two issues.
NEW DELHI: When Chinese President Hu Jintao reaches India on November 20 for a visit that would be dominated by economic matters, India will convey its concerns on two issues: One, the Chinese tendency to focus their investments in project finance, and two: the plans to divert or tamper with rivers originating in Tibet and flowing to India.
Sources told DNA that when the two sides sit down for parleys, New Delhi will convey its worries over the Chinese focus on financing projects while assuring them that the Indian security concerns on foreign direct investments (FDI) are not country-specific. Majority of the Chinese investments in India are project finance, which refers to financing of non-recourse long-term infrastructure, industrial projects and services with complex financial structure. China is investing in sectors like ports and telecom, for which they would want to bring in many Chinese workers, but India would rather encourage China to look at normal FDIs like investing money to start new ventures or buying Indian firms in the market.
The biggest worry that India plans to present before Hu’s delegation is its concerns regarding Chinese moves to divert or tamper with the natural flow of rivers originating in Tibet and flowing into India. Three of India’s most important rivers - Sutlej, Indus and Brahmaputra - originate in Tibet, travel several thousand kilometers through the Chinese held area, before entering India.
Latest of a series of worries for New Delhi is a reported Beijing plan to divert 200 billion cubic meters of water from the Brahmaputra to feed the Yellow River, to meet the severe water shortage in Beijing, Tianjin, Shaanxi and Hebel. Beijing has officially denied any such move, but there are credible inputs indicating that Chinese are actively considering the suggestion. If such a diversion happens, it could have catastrophic impact on life and agriculture in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam etc.
Though things have substantially improved since 2000, when unexplained reasons caused flashfloods in Arunachal and Himachal Pradesh, situation is far from satisfactory. In June 2005, though Chinese provided advance warning of floods on the lower riparian parts of Sutlej, their cooperation on the issue was unsatisfactory. Indian request to investigate the Pareechhu Lake swelling last year was not fully entertained. The Chinese authorities built up an entire hydropower project on Sutlej without informing Indians.
Irresponsible actions by China on the flow of the three rivers could impact the geology of the Himalayan ranges, increase in the number of earthquakes in the region, experts said.
‘Start trade links with China’
Despite Beijing’s claim on his state, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Gegong Apang on Wednesday urged the Centre to reopen ancient trade links along the Sino-Indian border for the mutual benefit of both countries.
“Let them (governments of India and China) talk on the border issue. But we can do business. I have already written to the Centre to open nine trading posts along the border for the benefit of the people of both countries,” Apang said.
On Chinese Ambassador Sun Yuxi’s claim that Arunachal Pradesh is “Chinese territory”, Apang said he did not want to comment on the matter as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has already made a strong statement to say that the state is an integral part of India.
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