Trump’s comment on India and US withdrawal from Paris pact shocking: Rajnath

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 6

Even as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday rejected the contention that India signed the Paris climate pact not because of pressure from any country or due to the lure of money, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement had come as a “shock and surprise” and hoped that the American administration would relook into its move.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

In his inaugural address to a national function titled ‘Capacity Building of State Disaster Response Force-2017’, the Home Minister admitted that it was a “cause of concern” for India and the world as a whole, as a country like the US “thinks only about its own interests”.

“The US President’s statement on the Paris agreement has come as a shock for us and the international community. I am sure the US will rethink its decision,” Singh said.

Singh then went on to add that it had to be seen “in what circumstances the US President made the statement on the Paris accord”.

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

Rejecting the contention of the US President, Swaraj had said, “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.”