US Secretary of State John Kerry today held a “positive and constructive” meeting with Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar at the climate change conference here on various bilateral efforts made to reach a deal for reducing emissions.

Kerry, who arrived in Paris last night, met Javadekar for around an hour at the Indian office of the Conference of Parties (COP21).

“We had a very constructive meeting, a very positive meeting. We are working hard. We appreciate the good effort of the Indian delegation,” he said in brief comment.

Javadekar later said that discussions were made on various efforts made by both the countries to reach a just and ambitious climate change agreement.

“Kerry had come and as you have seen all day long, we (India) is discussing with all the groups and countries. In the next 72 hours we are going to continue this. We had discussions on what efforts they (US) are making and what we are doing,” Javadekar said.

“We want an ambitious and just agreement in Paris. We told him about the efforts we are making for that. The discussions will continue,” he said.

Asked if the issues of equity and Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) were discussed, Javadekar said that India’s role is well known to the US and discussions were made on “how to arrive (at an agreement) and where “the shoe pinches“.

India had come out very strongly against Kerry’s remark in an interview in which he had termed India as a “challenge” in the crucial climate change conference.

Javadekar has already hit out at the remarks earlier, saying they were “unwarranted” and had made it clear that India is “not in the habit of taking any pressure from anybody“.

Since the negotiations here began, India has been criticised, mostly by the western media on its plan to expand its usage of coal to meet its energy needs.