July 31: Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said India was unperturbed by China's recent agreement with the US on climate change. Calling Beijing as an "important ally" in the process to negotiate a pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, he said the text of the agreement did not have anything that would lead the Centre to believe that China would have a "parallel path on the tough negotiations to reach an agreement to check global warming".
"I have read the text of the agreement that has been signed. There is nothing in that agreement that should cause us worry. There is nothing which leads me to believe that China is going to have a parallel path," he told mediapersons.
Mr Ramesh said he had a lengthy meeting with Chinese ambassador Zhang Yan in which the issue of the Sino-US pact, signed in Washington on Tuesday, also figured.
He said that Mr Zhang had assured him that the agreement with the United States was part of a bilateral mechanism indicating that it would have no impact on the global negotiations.
The US and China had said they would put in place a committee on environmental cooperation aimed at smoothing the rocky path towards a new global treaty on climate change.
Mr Ramesh said he will travel to Beijing next month and the US-China agreement would be discussed with the leadership there.
