Amid the strengthening ties between the two countries, the US President Donald Trump today described the air in India as “filthy” and shifts the climate change blame to India along with China and Russia.
Trump’s remarks come at a time when he was explaining his move to withdrew from the Paris climate accord. He had said that the move would have made America a non-competitive nation.
“Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia. Look at India. The air is filthy. I walked out of the Paris Accord as we had to take out trillions of dollars and we were treated very unfairly,” he said during a debate with Democratic White House challenger Joe Biden.
“I will not sacrifice millions of jobs… thousands of companies because of the Paris Accord. It is very unfair,” he said.
On US President’s remark, opposition in India bombarded with opposition’s tweets criticizing his remark and asking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to respond.
The relations between US and India have been strengthening in last few months as the Quadrilateral grouping of US, Japan, India and Australia are sending their warships for the Malabar Exercise next month.
Quadrilateral grouping, which experts say is to be mirroring NATO, has already been criticized by China many times.
In another major development in direction of strengthening the ties, New Delhi and Washington are also stepping up efforts to conclude the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) ahead of the Indo-US 2+2 ministerial meeting on October 26-27.