US President Donald Trump makes surprise visit to UN climate change summit, claps on PM Modi's speech

New York: United States President Donald Trump on Monday made a brief unscheduled appearance at UN Climate Action Summit in US' New York and sat among the audience, listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech on climate change.

President Trump was not scheduled to attend the high-level meeting convened by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, having expressed his reservations about the scientific consensus on manmade causes of global warming. 

However, Trump attended the meeting for about 15 minutes along with Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and listened to remarks made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trump was also seen clapping during PM Modi's speech where he highlighted India's "practical approach and roadmap" to mitigate climate change and outlined the efforts the country has made on the global platform.

US President Donald Trump did not make any remarks and soon left to attend a separate conference on religious freedom.

At the UN Climate Action Summit, Prime Minister Modi also invited the United Nations member states to join the coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), which was launched by India there. The PM also made a case for a global movement to bring about change and said, "What is needed is a comprehensive approach that covers education, lifestyle, development strategy. We need global people's movement to bring about change. We believe that an ounce of practice is worth more than a ton of preaching."

The climate summit is part of the United Nations General Assembly and was planned to "discuss a leap in collective national ambition."