China dams to be discussed in India visit of Jake Sullivan

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan's visit to New Delhi from January 5-6 is expected to include discussions with Indian counterparts about the impact of Chinese dams, a senior US official has said.

"We've certainly seen in many places in the Indo-Pacific that upstream dams that the Chinese have created, including in the Mekong region, can have really potentially damaging environmental but also climate impacts on downstream countries," a senior US official said on Friday ahead of Sullivan's visit.

Sullivan is expected to meet with Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

The official added that Washington will discuss New Delhi's concerns in the visit.

Washington and its Western allies are trying to position India as a counter to China's rising influence in Asia and beyond. But some analysts doubt this strategy's effectiveness.

The Indian government says it has conveyed its concerns to Beijing about China's plan to build a hydropower dam in Tibet on the Yarlung Zangbo River which flows into India.

Chinese officials say that hydropower projects in Tibet will not have a major impact on the environment or on downstream water supplies.

The construction of that dam, which will be the largest of its kind in the world with an estimated capacity of 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, was approved last month.

Washington also expects that topics such as civilian nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence, space, military licensing and Chinese economic overcapacity will be brought up in the visit, the US official said.

No meeting with Dalai Lama

American officials will not be meeting the Dalai Lama during the visit, another US official said.

Washington and New Delhi have built close ties in recent years with differences over issues like abuse of minorities in India under far-right Hindu nationalist government, New Delhi's ties with Russia amid Moscow's war with Ukraine and alleged assassination plots against Sikh separatists on US and Canadian soil.

Ties between both sides have been strained by US prosecutors' accusation in 2023 that an official in PM Narendra Modi's government was involved in a foiled assassination plot against an activist of India's Sikh minority in New York, and the killing of another Sikh activist in Canada.