Sushma Swaraj on Monday said India had been engaged in preserving environment for 5,000 years, dismissing US President Donald Trump’s charges that it signed the Paris pact to get “billions and billions” of dollars from developed nations.
“This is completely untrue,” Swaraj said about Trump’s charges, which he made while announcing the US exit from the Paris deal last week. She, however, said the American move on Paris climate agreement had not changed India-US ties.
Modi is scheduled to visit the US at the end of the month, his first visit since Trump was voted to the country’s top position.
Addressing a press briefing, Swaraj said the foreign direct investment (FDI) had gone up by 37.5 per cent in the three years of the NDA rule at the Centre against the last three years of the its predecessor, the UPA.
#WATCH EAM Sushma Swaraj addresses MEA annual press conference https://t.co/bwg8WFqlcs
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 5, 2017
Swaraj said the central government had eased passport rules and improved relations with Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as Israel and Palestine, since taking over three years ago.
Swaraj was addressing the press briefing about Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s work as it completed three years in power.
She also said there was no change in the current H1-B visa programme but added that the government was concerned. She also said that there was nothing from the US that suggested that the country wanted to water down its defence ties with India.
Swaraj also said that while India had agreed to greater connectivity in the region, the CPEC project violated India’s sovereignty.
The minister said that India would continue to engage with China over its membership into the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group She also spoke about Kashmir, and said Pakistan could not take the Kashmir dispute to the International Court of Justice because it was a bilateral issue.
“Pakistan cannot take Kashmir issue to International Court of Justice. Kashmir issue can only be resolved bilaterally,” she said.
She also said that peace talks and terrorist activities could not go together.
She was replying to a question on reported remarks of Pakistani law officer that Islamabad will take the Kashmir issue to ICJ.
