Nirmala Sitharaman says,'India deeply values its relationship with US as a trusted partner...'

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday met US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and reiterated that "India deeply values its relationship with the US as a trusted partner."

At a joint press conference, Sitharaman said, "India deeply values its relationship with the US as a trusted partner... Our strong ties have been reinforced, through significant and frequent interactions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden and their commitment towards consolidating a strategic partnership.

India-US economic ties are getting stronger and deeper with time. Yellen is in India to participate in the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership.

"Our strong trade, investment and people-to-people ties make bilateral, economic, and financial relationships, a critical element to our partnership," said US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, at the 9th meeting of the India-US Economic Financial Partnership, in Delhi.

She also highlighted the close ties between American and Indian people and businesses and noted ways to further bilateral economic relationships, including through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and stronger supply chains through friend-shoring.

"Collaboration in this forum (Indo-Pacific) can promote each of our economies' growth and stability and can also be instrumental to supporting economic prosperity across Indo-Pacific. We're also eager to discuss our shared priorities as India assumes G20 presidency," said US Treasury Secretary.

Responding to it, Sitharaman said, "We will continue to rely on the close cooperation of the US to address the global economic challenges, in a more coordinated manner and in strengthening multilateralism," said FM Nirmala Sitharaman.

Yellen also highlighted mitigating the existential risk of climate change, providing multilateral institutions, and addressing debt burdens faced by many developing countries.

"We hope that mutual understanding we built will help us work together to advance our shared goals, including mitigating the existential risk of climate change, providing multilateral institutions, and addressing debt burdens faced by many developing countries," said US Treasury Secretary.

Notably, the US surpassed China to become India's top trading partner in 2021-22, reflecting the strengthening economic ties between the two countries.

Recently, India has also joined a US-led initiative to set up an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and this move would help boost economic ties further.

The IPEF is the centrepiece of the present US regime's economic strategy toward the Indo-Pacific region.

In October 2021, the US announced the development of IPEF with partner nations to define shared objectives around trade facilitation, standards for the digital economy and technology, supply chain resiliency, decarbonization and clean energy, infrastructure, worker standards, and other areas of shared interest.

The US is working out the details of this strategy with a range of countries in the region, including Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea and India.

The IPEF will focus on four main pillars: trade facilitation, supply chain resilience, infrastructure and decarbonization, and taxation and anti-corruption.

India is emerging as a trusted trading partner and global firms are reducing their dependence on China for their supplies and are diversifying their business into other countries like India.

India is the fastest-growing market economy with an unparalleled demographic dividend and provides enormous opportunities for the US and Indian firms for technology transfer, manufacturing, trade and investment.

(ANI)

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