PM Modi's US visit still on despite Trump rant against India on climate change

TNN, The Times of India ^ | Saturday, June 3, 2017 | Chidanand Rajghatta

[Jyotishi]

HIGHLIGHTS

o Trump's shrill speech has cast a shadow on PM Modi's expected visit to US later this month.

o Dates for the PM's trip have not been formally or officially announced yet.

o The White House has penciled in June 26-27 for first meeting between Trump and Modi.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump unloaded on India among other countries during an epic rant on Thursday while announcing American withdrawal from the Paris climate change accord .

The shrill speech, replete with claims of American victimhood at the hands of the rest of the world, casts a chill on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expected visit to the White House later this month, which officials say remains on schedule.

Phone and cables lines between Washington and New Delhi were buzzing on Thursday and Friday as Indian officials and diplomats took stock of Trump's direct, no-holds-barred attack in which he accused New Delhi of trying to extract "billions and billions and billions" of dollars in foreign aid from the developed world to sign up for the climate accord.

Although dates for the Prime Minister's trip have not been formally or officially announced, the White House has penciled in June 26-27 for the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Modi.

The meeting, which Indian officials said on background is still on despite the climate change fireworks, will now take place under a cloud of misgivings, including the Trump administration's crackdown of guest worker visas that is adversely affecting Indian businesses, its squeeze on US manufacturing abroad that is forcing a scaling down of US investment in India, and now its withdrawal from the Paris Treaty after previous US administrations dragged New Delhi kicking and screaming into it.

Although no one is talking of canceling the visit yet, Trump's harsh critiques have cooled the expected ardor between Washington and New Delhi that a small constituency of Trump bhakts in both countries had anticipated and forecast.

"The relationship is bigger than any one issue. We need to keep engaging," a senior Indian official involved in the visit told TOI, confirming the visit was still on and pointing out how China's leader Xi Jinping came to US despite Trump unloading on Beijing for more than a year.

Trump repeatedly raged against India, China , and rest of the world on Thursday, casting the US as a victim of global machinations.

"India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries," he fumed in a 27-minute, 3000-word tirade in the White House Rose Garden while declaring that the "bottom line is that the Paris Accord is very unfair, at the highest level, to the United States."

No other developed country has made such allegations, and in fact, the US stands isolated even in the developed world following its withdrawal.

The US President then went on to claim that India will be allowed to double its coal production by 2020 and China will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants, but the US can't under the Paris agreement.

"Think of it: India can double their coal production. We're supposed to get rid of ours," Trump fumed, arguing that "compliance with the terms of the Paris Accord and the onerous energy restrictions it has placed on the US could cost America as much as 2.7 million lost jobs by 2025" - figures that are contested even within the US.

"In short, the agreement doesn't eliminate coal jobs, it just transfers those jobs out of America and ships them to foreign countries," Trump maintained in remarks that did not once refer to the widely-acknowledged fact that the United States has historically been the world's biggest polluter with the largest carbon footprint in the global community, and the rest of the world, and the US itself, has had to pay for American profligacy and addiction to hydro-carbons.

Trump's claim that India was seeking "billions and billions and billions" was also typical of the hyperbolic falsehoods he often indulges in. Total foreign aid to India in 2015 was only $ 3.1 billion, with US aid to India only around $ 100 million. This is being whittled down to $34 million in 2018, pocket change for India which now itself gives out $ 1.6 billion in foreign aid, mostly to neighboring countries.

Compared to the peanuts in US aid (which New Delhi prefers is completely stopped), India buys $ 100 million worth of California almonds alone every year, besides billions in armaments. India also receives many times more in foreign investment and remittances than foreign aid.

But expanding on the victimhood thesis, Trump argued that the Paris Accord "is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States."

"A cynic would say the obvious reason for economic competitors and their wish to see us remain in the agreement is so that we continue to suffer this self-inflicted major economic wound," the US President said, claiming the Paris deal "hamstrings the United States, while empowering some of the world's top polluting countries," and it should "dispel any doubt as to the real reason why foreign lobbyists wish to keep our magnificent country tied up and bound down by this agreement: It's to give their country an economic edge over the United States."

"That's not going to happen while I'm President. I'm sorry," he added.

[DoughtyOne]

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President Donald J. Trump and the Free Republic of the United States of America

Ramirez political cartoon: Economic Climate Change LARGE VERSION 06/03/2017: LINK  LINK to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).

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...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $690.00 to 84.00%

[Telepathic Intruder]

The devil wraps himself in many goodly disguises.

[yoe]

President Trump didn’t say anything PM Modi doesn’t already know and also won’t change mainly because of their cast system
...the only fuel for some is to burn wood/any material that will burn, for heat and for cooking.

[sagar]

Tell India to go pound sand. They need the US more than the US needs them. Trump could use the Pakistan card to extract all the benefits from India. Where is India going to go? Neighboring Islamic countries or Communist China? India’s natural allies are atleast 3000 miles far. India will become a beggar economy if they mess with the US.

[sagar]

India is a powder keg ready to go off. The lower casts have millennia of oppression in the back of their minds. You think BLM is bad, just wait until 350 million untouchables want blood. Not to mention a billion neighboring Muslims wanting Jihad and another billion Chicoms wanting to become Superpower.

[catnipman]

typical media lies. here are the two paragraphs Trump mentioned India:

“For example, under the agreement, China will be able to increase these emissions by a staggering number of years — 13. They can do whatever they want for 13 years. Not us. India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries. There are many other examples. But the bottom line is that the Paris accord is very unfair, at the highest level, to the United States.”

“China will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants. So we can’t build the plants, but they can, according to this agreement. India will be allowed to double its coal production by 2020. Think of it: India can double their coal production. We’re supposed to get rid of ours. Even Europe is allowed to continue construction of coal plants.”

not rants, but simple truths, simply stated by a U.S. President who cares more about the U.S. than what his lying critics fabricate about him.

[Cowboy Bob]

All of India's successes are dependent solely on the West. They would be wise not to bite the hand that built them.

Or, would they rather see all their H1B visa workers shipped back home?

[KyCats]

This article is unreadable. Every sentence drips with Trump hatred. The author can kiss my butt.

[kingu]

Bad United States which has made tremendous efforts at reducing pollution; you must be punished for your success and the failure of so many other countries.

On that one issue, Democrats have got to be giving a huge sigh of relief that this dog has finally been put to rest; how they would have pitched Hillary doing it, I have no idea, but there’s no way that the Paris Accords would have stood for even 3 years, much less long term. (Wait, didn’t the Kyoto Agreement save the world already? Man, those liberals, so hard to keep track of their rescues of humanity.)

[DoughtyOne]

Where India could lose big, I think the U.S. stands to lose too. We both need each other IMO.

India is a strategic prize > IMO.

It shouldn’t overplay it’s hand though.

[HiTech RedNeck]

A karma kick in the knickers?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Snake gods. I can’t believe they believe in that. But again I can.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Why Donald Trump Is Winning Over Many American Hindus
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3485221/posts

Indian Hindu group: Trump will be mankind’s lone savior
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3430176/posts

[yoe]

"Where India could lose big, I think the U.S. stands to lose too."

(G8 Summits: Empty promises each year)

(G8 and Global Governance)

(The Group of Eight (G8) Industrialized Nations)

(toothless..a threat to USA sovereignty as well)

[DoughtyOne]

Should be nothing to worry about, but then why can’t I think of it being Gr8?

[boop]

Yeah that sounds really “unhinged and shrill”, alright.</s>

[sergeantdave]

“Trump’s shrill speech has cast a shadow on PM Modi’s expected visit to US later this month.”

Horse sh*t. Chidanand Rajghatta, the author of this crap article, is a well-known Soros bag man and commie troll.

Trump and Modi are on very friendly terms. The meeting between Trump and Modi is set and will go forward.