India and China Reiterate: Development Is the Core of Climate Talks

India's leading English-language daily The Hindu, which usually reflects the Foreign Ministry's viewpoint, on Dec. 21 pointed out that "the political challenge before the BASIC Four nations [China, India, South Africa, Brazil] especially India and China, is to redefine the task of drastic emissions reduction globally in a manner that refuses to counterpose the global public good to the development imperative."

The Hindu editorial coincided with the statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry official Yi Xianliang, quoted in the official People's Daily today, who pointed out, "The diplomatic and political wrangling over climate change that is opening up will be focused on the right to develop and space to develop." The negotiations that culminated in Copenhagen showed that "conflicts were increasingly sharp and the crux of disputes was steadily involving each country's core interests," said Yi.

The Hindu editorial also said the Copenhagen accord "marked the end-run of a concerted U.S. strategy to corner the major developing economies in the climate negotiations." It said the BASIC Four have successfully resisted, for now, the core strategy of the developed nations to set aside the Kyoto Protocol in its entirety and to alter the architecture of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.