DELHI, INDIA - We, Indian Finance Minister P.
Chidambaram and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, met today in
New Delhi for the third annual meeting of the India-U.S. Economic and Financial
Partnership. We recognize the progress made in the last two meetings of the
Partnership in advancing the financial and economic relationship between our
two nations since its launch in 2010 in New Delhi. The Partnership meetings
have served as the forum for the highest level of engagement between India and
the United States. Governor Subbarao and Chairman Bernanke and other
senior officials participated in our meeting. We are committed to continue to
build on our past discussions and explore new areas to deepen and broaden our
economic and financial engagements.
The rapidly expanding financial and economic relationship
between our two countries is at the core of our multi-faceted relationship and
is based on shared values and an increasing convergence of interests.
Both countries recognize the great potential benefit from working together to
meet the challenges of a shared future to generate jobs, sustain growth, and
help ensure macroeconomic stability. The growing trade and investment between
our two countries across a wide range of products, services, and technology is
a sign of our commitment to build our relationship on a solid foundation that
utilizes our mutual strengths.
In our meeting, we discussed recent economic and financial
developments in our two economies and in the world at large. We have
improved our understanding of the challenges that both of our economies face,
and our approach towards meeting these challenges in the near- and
medium-term. We agreed to deepen our cooperation bilaterally and in
multilateral fora, including the G-20 to contribute towards steering the global
economy out of uncertainties and achieve strong, sustainable, and balanced growth
going forward.
We discussed ways we can further lower barriers to trade and
investment to facilitate stronger growth and job creation. We realize
that continued investment in our infrastructure, in our people, and in our
institutions is critical to driving innovation, and increasing job creation and
growth in our economies. We are committed to make these investments to enhance
competitiveness of our economies and to prepare our people and industry to
compete in today’s globalized world that is ever changing in the way products
and services are delivered. For example, India’s Twelfth Five Year Plan
aims at an investment of US$ one trillion in the infrastructure sector.
Infrastructure Debt Funds and other recent capital market reforms offer huge
investment opportunities for U.S. businesses and investors.
In our dialogue, we agreed to expand cooperation to deepen
capital markets and strengthen financial regulation. We will also
strengthen cooperation to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
Our work continues on infrastructure financing.
We are encouraged by the recent success of our engagement
over the last two years under the aegis of this Partnership. We will
continue to strengthen our economic and financial ties in order to realize the
full potential of the U.S.-India partnership to achieve maximum benefits for
the American and Indian people.
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