India seeks river data from China, flags concerns over Tibet mega-dam

India has urged China to resume sharing water-flow data amid rising concerns over Beijing's construction of what will be the world's largest dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo, a river that flows from Tibet through India into Bangladesh, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.

New Delhi underlined the need for an early meeting of the Expert Level Mechanism on trans-border rivers and emphasised the importance of sharing technical details of upstream river projects, the MEA said in a statement issued on Friday, following the 36th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China Border Affairs.

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India took up the matter during border talks with Chinese officials in New Delhi under the WMCC, a diplomatic-military mechanism for managing the boundary dispute between the two countries. The two sides also took stock of efforts to stabilise ties and address long-pending differences along the border.

China is constructing the dam in the mountainous terrain of Tibet at an estimated cost of around 1.2 trillion yuan ($178 billion), Bloomberg reported. The project is expected to have an impact on the local environment as well as on downstream nations, including India.

The Yarlung Tsangpo, referred to as the Brahmaputra in India, flows through Indian territory into Bangladesh and is a source of water for millions of people. The dam is expected to take nearly a decade to build. The government had told Parliament last August that China has not shared hydrological data on the river since June 2023.

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Separately, India and China agreed to maintain peace and tranquillity along the disputed border, the MEA said, adding that both countries would continue to rely on existing diplomatic and military channels to communicate and prevent misunderstanding or miscalculation along the boundary.

The two nations share an unmarked 3,488-kilometre border, which has led to military stand-offs and periods of tension in recent years. Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have been steadily improving after a five-year freeze triggered by a deadly border clash in June 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tianjin last August.