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Neither pressure nor funds: Sushma Swaraj counters Donald Trump's charge on Paris climate deal

NEW DELHI: India did not join the Paris climate-change agreement under pressure or for funds from other nations, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday, rebuking US President Donald Trump for comments dubbing India an unfair beneficiary of the deal. As Sushma delivered the sharpest and most direct criticism yet by an Indian official of Trump's allegations against India, she insisted that bilateral relations remained on course under the new administration in Washington. Trump had said, while withdrawing the US from the agreement last week, that India had made its participation in the Paris pact contingent on receiving "billions and billions and billions of dollars" from developed nations. Indian officials had privately rejected his charge and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken a veiled dig at Trump on Saturday by suggesting in Paris that climate change remained "invisible" to some. on Monday, Sushma directly criticised Trump. "That (Trump's allegation) is not the reality," she said, responding to a question from The Telegraph on the US President's accusation. "Anyone who suggests that we signed the Paris agreement for money or under pressure is absolutely wrong. We did not. And whether America remains in it or not, we will stay in it." Sushma's comments highlight the unease within the Modi administration over Trump's accusations, especially since the Prime Minister is to travel to Washington for his first meeting with the US President three weeks from now. Her downplaying of the "pressure" on India reflected the government's efforts to underscore that New Delhi's decision to sign and ratify the Paris agreement had come on the basis of its assessment of India's needs. Critics, including some former climate-change negotiators, have questioned the rush with which India ratified the Paris pact last October, just before the end of the term of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, who had piloted the agreement. India's ratification enabled the enforcement of the agreement -- countries contributing 55 per cent of the world's carbon emissions needed to ratify the deal for it to come into effect. India is the world's third-largest emitter. However, India's ratification came at a time when Trump had been confirmed as the Republican candidate for President, and had made his disdain for the Paris pact clear. The Paris agreement isn't the only niggle in the India-US relations, Sushma acknowledged, speaking at a media briefing. She said the Modi government was concerned about rhetoric in the US about a crackdown on foreign worker visas, especially the H1B category of temporary work visas that are used mostly by Indians. Sushma, however, cited the requirement for the US Congress to approve any substantive changes to America's visa programme -- and the bipartisan support India enjoys on Capitol Hill -- as cause for optimism. "There are concerns because there is talk we hear in the US," she said, when asked if the Modi government was worried about impending changes to the H1B regime. "But many amendments need Congressional approval, and I want to assure you that we are carefully following the developments." Sushma said that Modi would articulate India's concerns to Trump when he met him at the White House, probably on June 26. The Indian embassy in the US too is lobbying with both the Trump administration and the US Congress to try and block any changes to the H1B visa programme, she said. Despite these challenges, she said, India remained optimistic about its ties with the US under Trump. "There has been no slowdown in our relations with the US under the Trump administration," Sushma said. "The Trump administration views the relationship with India as mutually beneficial." Sushma referred to Modi's telephone conversations with Trump -- three in all -- and the visits by national security adviser Ajit Doval and foreign secretary S. Jaishankar to the US over the past six months to build ties with the Trump administration. Jaishankar had met Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, on his last trip there. These developments, Sushma suggested, made India confident about continuity in the Trump administration's approach to New Delhi on strategic matters and defence. "There is no indication from their (America's) side of any change," she said. -The Telegraph Calcutta
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