Paris climate deal: Hope Trump will rethink his decision, says HM Rajnath Singh

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that US President Donald Trump’s statement withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement had come as a shock for India but he was sure America would rethink its decision.

Inaugurating a two-day national level conference on ‘Capacity Building of State Disaster Response Force-2017’, Singh said it was cause of concern for India and the world community if a country thinks only about its own interests.

“The US President’s statement on Paris agreement has come as a shock for us and the international community. I am sure the US will rethink its decision,” he said. It has to be seen, the home minister added, in what circumstances the US president made the statement on the Paris accord.

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Announcing the US withdrawal from the Paris deal on June 1, Trump claimed that India had made its participation in the agreement “contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions dollars in foreign aid”.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj rejected Trump’s comment yesterday and said India signed the Paris climate pact not because of pressure from any country or due to the lure of money.

“Our signature in the pact was not because of greed, it was not because of fear. We signed it due to our commitment to protecting the environment... India will continue to be part of it irrespective of whether the US remains in it or not,” Swaraj told reporters while speaking on three years of the Modi government.

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