Economic, financial ties a critical part of U.S.-India partnership, says Yellen

The United States is committed to strengthening our bilateral economic relationship with India and to deepening our level of cooperation and collaboration, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in her opening remarks at the Ninth U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership Meeting on November 11, 2022.

“As the world’s two largest democracies, these annual gatherings are an opportunity to deepen the economic bonds between our two countries,” she said, adding that the collaboration in this forum can not only promote both economies’ growth and stability, but can also be instrumental to supporting economic prosperity across the Indo-Pacific region.

“Today, we face global headwinds and divergent economic pressures. The world economy was still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic when Russia launched its brutal, unjustified invasion of Ukraine. This generated an unwelcome shock to fuel and food prices and greatly exacerbated inflation pressures,” Ms. Yellen noted in the presence of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

“But challenges like this help strengthen partnerships like the one that exists between the U.S. and India by demonstrating the necessity of cooperation and clear and open communication. Our strong trade, investment, and people-to-people ties make the bilateral economic and financial relationship a critical element of that partnership,” she said.

India’s membership in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and efforts to make the two countries’ supply chains more resilient through what she called ‘friend-shoring’ are tightening bilateral ties further, the Treasury Secretary said, expressing eagerness to discuss shared priorities with India as it assumes the G20 presidency in coming weeks.

Mooting open, frank and productive bilateral discussions at the meeting, Ms. Yellen said she also hoped that the mutual understanding ‘we build will help us work together to advance our shared goals, including mitigating the existential risk of climate change, evolving multilateral institutions, and addressing the debt burden faced by many developing countries’.

India will continue to rely on close cooperation of the United States to address the global economic challenges in more coordinated manner and in strengthening multilateralism, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

“India deeply values its relationship with the United States as a trusted partner. We share a traditionally strong bilateral relationship underpinned with shared values, convergence of interests on wide ranging issues,” the minister said at the meeting of the India-U.S. Economic and Financial Partnership.