Save the planet first: Sanders slams $3bn defence deal
WASHINGTON:SENATOR Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, on Monday slammed the arms deal agreed between India and United States during President Donald Trump’s visit as a sop to “enrich” defence firms and said the two countries should rather work together to combat climate change.
“Instead of selling $3 billion in weapons to enrich Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed, the United States should be partnering with India to fight climate change,” the senator wrote on Twitter, referring to the three big defense manufacturers. “We can work together to cut air pollution, create good renewable energy jobs, and save our planet.”
India is a signatory to the 2015 Paris Accord and has continued to work towards its self-determined mitigation targets. The United States, on the other hand, was pulled out of the accord by President Trump, who has since gone on to reverse many mitigation measures, seriously imperiling its ability to meet its self-determined targets.
Sanders, who has endorsed and adopted a progressive plan to combat climate change called the “Green Deal”, has been critical of the president’s decision and then rescind anti-climate crisis steps announced by the President Barack Obama administration.
His criticism of the sale of $3 billion worth of military helicopters and other equipment to India was intriguing as India doesn’t need to be pushed, if that is indeed what he is suggesting, to fight climate change, which it has
NEWDELHI:US and Indian officials held discussions on 5G telecom technology, the next-generation wireless technology that is set to catapult data speeds, during US President Donald’s Trump’s twoday visit to India.
Trump, whose administration has pressured India and others to shun equipment made by Huawei Technologies Company Limited of China, said: “During our visit we discussed the importance of a secure 5G wireless network and the need for this emerging technology to be a tool for freedom, progress, prosperity, not to do anything with where it could be even conceived as a conduit for suppression and censorship.”
The US has throughout the