PM arrives in Brazil to attend Rio+20 summit

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has arrived in Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro to attend Rio+20 summit on global development to rally the world behind a common environmental blueprint amid economic woes and discord.

Dr Singh flew in here to attend the summit after a 10-hour flight from Los Cabos in Mexico where he attended the 7th G-20 summit.

He is due to return home on Saturday night after an overnight halt at Pretoria, South Africa.

Rio summit to make fresh bid to tackle environment woes

A crucial summit on global development kicks off in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday with nearly 20 heads of state and government, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in attendance in a fresh bid to rally the world behind a common environmental blueprint amid economic woes and discord.

As calls go out to world leaders to commit to reaching an accord that addresses the most pressing environment and social woes, Dr Singh will pitch for the principle of common but differentiated responsibility during the meeting, 20 years after the first Earth Summit was held in this Brazilian city.

US President Barack Obama and leaders of Germany and Britain -- Angela Merkel and David Cameron -- are not attending the two-day Summit, officially called the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leading the US delegation.

India will be negotiating to make sure that the Rio principles are reaffirmed and all sustainable development will be viewed with the approach of equity and common but differentiated responsibility so that developing countries can have their share of development.

India is also expected to voice its opposition to the Green Economy norms as propagated by the European Union.

The proposed "sustainable development goals," is a loose tripod of economic, environmental and social objectives that proponents believe could help guide global development.

Indian officials feel that while EU might be quite ambitious about the Green Economy, it has put undue focus on environmental dimensions ignoring socio-economic issues.

It is feared that EU's position will slow down the economic growth of India through environmental restrictions.

India is also apprehensive about the moves by the West on adopting sustainable development goals without any international financing, terming it as an attempt to blunt competition from developing countries.