NEW DELHI, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Indian Home Minister Rajanth Singh Tuesday termed U.S. President Donald Trump's statement on Paris Climate deal as "shocking," saying he was hopeful that Washington would rethink its decision.
"The U.S. President's statement on Paris agreement has come as a shock for us and the international community. I am sure the U.S. will rethink its decision," Singh said while addressing a conference in New Delhi.
On June 1, Trump announced U.S. withdrawal from the Paris deal and claimed that India had made its participation in the agreement "contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions dollars in foreign aid."
On Monday India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj had strongly rejected U.S. President's charge against India on climate deal, saying New Delhi signed the Paris agreement not under duress or for lure of money but due to its commitment to protect environment.
"What Trump said is not the reality. We have signed the Paris accord not under any pressure nor for any money ... to say we did it for money, I totally reject that," Swaraj told a media briefing.
The Paris agreement's central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 Celsius degrees above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 Celsius degrees.
It was signed by more than 190 countries and has been fully joined, in a legal sense, by over 140 so far.
