Notwithstanding a “difficult political” climate in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi “demonstrated” the country’s leadership on the issue of climate change, the White House has said ahead of his crucial meeting with US President Barack Obama.
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I am thankful for the help and support that my friend Barack Obama has extended with regard to membership in MTCR and NSG.
Speaking in Hindi at the Repatriation Cultural Property to India, Modi said that in the last two years various countries have endeavored to return India’s stolen cultural heritage.
Modi said that the US and India have been cooperating on issues of global concern, including nuclear security, climate change and terrorism.
The deadline for the members of the 34-nation group to object to India’s admission had expired on Monday without any of them raising objections.
“We believe that would have positive impacts on the climate and a positive impact on the economy both in the United States and in India”.
PM Modi has gone to the USA at the invitation of President Barack Obama, who in the a year ago of his presidency is inviting a few world leaders with whom he shares a “close and productive working relationship”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his gratitude to Qatar Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani who ordered release of several prisoners for Ramadan, including 23 Indians.
“The economic relationship between the U.S. and India is an important one, and it is a relationship that benefits both our citizens”, he said.
Obama and Modi also welcomed the announcement by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and Westinghouse that engineering and site design work will begin immediately and the two sides will work toward finalising the contractual arrangements by June 2017, the White House said.
India’s decision to do so, as well, greatly increases the chances the deal takes effect in 2016: the deal won’t formally kick in until countries representing at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions ratify it. India is the world’s fourth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide.
Modi later took part in function in which some valuable Indian artifacts were repatriated.
Admission to the MTCR would open the way for India to buy high-end missile technology, also making more realistic its aspiration to buy state-of-the-art surveillance drones such as the US Predator.
The focus among negotiators leading up to Tuesday’s meeting has been an effort to work out details for restricting hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs, by adding them to the existing Montreal Protocol, the global treaty adopted in 1987 to address ozone depletion. He will be the fifth Indian PM to do so.
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Later on Wednesday, Modi will leave for Mexico on the fifth and final leg of his five-nation tour.
