Pres­i­dent Dr Ir­faan Ali has cau­tioned that the ten­sions be­tween U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and Brazil­ian Pres­i­dent Luiz In­á­cio Lu­la da Sil­va could un­der­mine the suc­cess of the up­com­ing UN cli­mate sum­mit, COP30, in Brazil.

Speak­ing dur­ing a pod­cast on Fri­day, the Pres­i­dent said strained re­la­tions be­tween the host na­tion and a ma­jor glob­al play­er like the Unit­ed States could “def­i­nite­ly make it hard­er” to reach a ne­go­ti­at­ed out­come at COP.

“If there is a strained re­la­tion­ship be­tween the host of COP and the U.S., that def­i­nite­ly damp­ens the abil­i­ty to get a com­pro­mise… one ma­jor part­ner opt­ing out and the en­tire process falls,” Ali added.