Snubbed at Copenhagen meet,says Wen

The Premier,who was heading the Chinese delegation at the meet,said he and his team had not received any invitation to a small meeting among several countries’ leaders on December 17,though Beijing’s name was mentioned in the list of participants. “We haven’t received any explanation until now (about not being notified of the meeting). It’s still a mystery to me.”

Wen made the unusually candid remarks after he was asked to comment on his decision not to attend the key meeting before the December 18 summit,a move which was being perceived as “arrogant.” “It still perplexes me why some people keep trying to make an issue about China (in this regard),” he said.

Wen said he learnt from a European leader,at a banquet hosted by the Danish Queen on December 17,about the meeting that was to be held later in the evening and then found out China was on the list of the meeting’s participating nations. “I was shocked as I had received no notification that China was invited,” he said.

China,the largest emitter of the greenhouse gases,was blamed by many delegates at the UN-sponsored meet for the failure of the Copenhagen talks to produce any binding agreement. Negotiators,led by US President Barack Obama,attempted to salvage the talks at the last minute with a voluntary,non-binding Copenhagen Accord.