India and Malaysia Monday stressed the need to strengthen their bilateral strategic partnership in environment and climate change, an official statement said.
This was agreed at the meeting of Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar with visiting Malaysian Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel.
They reiterated the need to work closely in the domain of international negotiations so as to protect the interests of developing countries, the statement from the environment and forests ministry said.
The two ministers discussed the possibility of cooperation in the areas of technical exchange for forest bio-diversity conservation with the focus on DNA finger-printing of wildlife animals, sustainable forest management, production forestry, strengthening forest based livelihoods, e-waste management, river cleaning and water conservation.
Javadekar said India was committed for cooperation in climate change negotiations under the UNFCCC, where both India and Malaysia belonged to the Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) group.
He told Palanivel that a concerted stand was required on the global climate change negotiations.
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On the issue of bio-diversity conservation and promotion, Javadekar said that Indian white tiger may be exchanged for famous Malayan tapir.
"Javadekar also referred to the draft MoU under consideration by the Malaysian Forestry Research and Development Board in the field of bio-technology, tree improvement and conservation of forest genetics resources and requested his Malaysian counterpart to facilitate the signing of the MoU at the earliest," the statement said.
Palanivel appreciated India's efforts in the areas of climate change and watershed management, and expressed his willingness to enhance technological cooperation.