Sweden to seek India's support on climate change

New Delhi, Nov 4: Leaders of India and Sweden will hold wide-ranging talks Thursday that will focus on evolving a consensus on a new global climate deal and promoting civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt arrives here Thursday morning on a three-day visit to attend the 10th summit between India and the 27-nation European Union (EU) to be held Friday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold talks with the Swedish premier on a range of bilateral and global issues, including the global financial crisis, climate change, economic ties and ways to deepen cooperation between the two countries in the field of nuclear energy and non-renewable energy.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Minister for Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah and Prime Minister's envoy on climate change and nuclear issues Shyam Saran will be present at the delegation-level discussions.

Reinfeldt, also chairman of the Swedish presidency of the EU, is expected to seek India's support and enunciate the EU's position on climate change in his speech at The Energy and Research Institute (TERI).

Manmohan Singh will host a lunch for the visiting dignitary.

This is the first visit to India by the Swedish prime minister in the last five years.

With the clock ticking away for the UN climate change summit at Copenhagen next month, Reinfeldt, also the chairman of the rotating presidency of the EU, will seek India's support for a new global deal that is mired in differences among developed and developed countries over the costs of mitigation and emission targets.

The EU summit last week agreed that rich countries should give developing nations up to 50 billion euros a year by 2020 to help them combat climate change, but did not specify how much it was willing to contribute. This position has not gone down well with India, which has advocated common and differentiated responsibilities and wants deeper carbon emission cuts by developed countries.

Expanded cooperation in the area of renewable energy will figure prominently in the discussions.

Sweden, a member of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, is keen to offer New Delhi its niche expertise in nuclear waste management and security. This issue will also come up for discussions, sources said.

A delegation of Swedish companies operating in the area of nuclear technology and safety management came to India this April on an exploratory trip. They held talks with officials of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) and also met India's nuclear pointsman Anil Kakodkar, chief of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Trade and economic ties have nearly multiplied five times in the last eight years to around $2 billion. Sweden is the 12th largest investor in India.

--IANS