After a gap of nearly three years, India and China will hold their next round of strategic dialogue here next week during which the Indian side is expected to raise contentious issues of water and border incursion by Chinese troops.

The fifth round of the dialogue, to be co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhen, will be held on August 20 and will also review the progress on negotiations on Border Defence Cooperation Agreement.

This will be the first interaction of Singh with senior Chinese officials on crucial bilateral issues. The last Strategic Dialogue was held in 2010.

The dialogue, on the lines of foreign office consultations, will also work on issues ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China. Singh is expected to travel to Beijing in October.

Apart from water and border incursion issues, India would again convey its concerns over market access in sectors like IT and pharma and huge trade deficit in favour of China during the dialogue.

India has been protesting the construction of Chinese dam on River Brahmaputra (known as Tsangpo in China) and the issue has figured in the bilateral talks between India and China at various levels.

India and China do not have any water-sharing agreements, but instead have instituted a mechanism to exchange data on trans-border rivers through a working group including information on the measurement of flows.

India is pressing China to have either a water commission or an inter-governmental dialogue or a treaty to deal with water issues between the two countries, a proposal not agreed upon by China so far.

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