'India to play bridge role in Cancun'

India will play a ‘bridge’ role in Cancun, where climate change talks will be held later this month, said environment minister Jairam Ramesh. “India’s approach at Cancun is to find the middle ground on contentious issues between the developed and developing countries, as the time of posturing is over. It is time to look for a solution. India is positioning itself as a bridge player between developing and developed countries.

We need to be practical and should engage with all countries as part of our foreign policy,” said Ramesh on Thursday. He added the bargain between BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) countries and the US at Copenhagen last year was on availability of fast-track finance of $30 billion during 2010-2012 and in return, developing countries would internationalise their domestic mitigation measures.