Now, Rajnath denounces Trump's remark on Paris pact

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday followed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to denounce US President Donald Trump’s recent statement on withdrawing from the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change.

“The US president’s statement on Paris agreement has come as a shock for us and the international community,” Singh said, after inaugurating a two-day conference on “Capacity Building of State Disaster Response Force”.

“I am sure the US will rethink its decision,” said Rajnath, even as New Delhi launched preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington DC later this month for his maiden meeting with the new US president.

Singh expressed shock over Trump’s statement just a day after Sushma dismissed US president’s charges that India had received billions of dollars in return for signing the Paris agreement.

Sushma rejected Trump’s allegations while addressing reporters at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. India had signed the Paris Agreement, not due to pressure from any country, nor (out of) greed. India signed the agreement because of its traditional commitment to protecting the environment, she said on Monday.

The home minister on Tuesday followed it up and said that the US president’s recent statement about the Paris agreement sent the message that the world community was not united in dealing with climate change. Rajnath added that it also made it clear that a country was only concerned about its own environment.

Trump last week announced his government’s decision to withdraw US from the Paris Agreement — a United Nations accord signed by 195 countries at the COP21 climate conference in the capital of France in December 2015. Trump said India had made its participation in the Paris agreement “contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries”.

His remarks cast a shadow over preparation for Modi’s visit to Washington DC later this month. With two senior ministers of the Modi government already dismissing the allegations by Trump, New Delhi sent out a clear message to Washington DC that it disapproved of the American president’s remarks.