Janet Yellen to meet FM Nirmala Sitharaman in India Ahead of G20 Summit
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to India and the Group of 20 Summit in Indonesia next week to strengthen US-India economic ties and try to overcome the G20 divide caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Treasury said on Friday.
Yellen will visit New Delhi on November 11 to participate in the meeting of the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership and deliver a speech on deepening democratic relations at the Microsoft India Development Center, where she will also meet with leaders of the technology sector, according to. in the statement of the Treasury.
Yellen will also meet with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss India’s assumption of the G20 presidency, as the group of major economies continues to grapple with deep divisions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as this year’s leaders’ summit in Indonesia approaches.
Russia, a member of the G20, has banned the group from issuing statements containing language critical of the conflict.
“In India, we will clearly expect if the war continues, that there is likely to be a further economic collapse that the G20 will have to deal with to clearly highlight Russia’s guilt for the war and the collapse,” a Treasury official told reporters.
Treasury officials said they were continuing to discuss with G7 allies and Australia how to freeze Russian oil sales aimed at reducing Moscow’s revenue while keeping Russian pollution in the market, but declined to give a timeline for announcing it.
On Thursday, sources in the consortium told Reuters that the cap would be set at a fixed price that would be reviewed regularly rather than a discount to the index.
Although India has become a major buyer of Russian crude, the United States is not trying to pressure India to reduce such purchases, and price declines were not a major focus of the visit by Yellen, the Treasury’s second-ranking official.
So we are not trying to stop countries from buying (Russian) oil,” the official added. “In fact, we see the biggest beneficiaries of the price are the big emerging market countries like India, so we’re not going to pressure them out of it.”
Yellen will travel to the Indonesian island of Bali on November 12 for a joint meeting of G20 finance and health ministers before joining President Joe Biden at the G20 leaders’ summit on November 15 and 16, the Treasury Department said. On November 13, Yellen will participate in the launch of the G20-led pandemic preparedness fund, to which the United States and the European Union have contributed R450 million (about Rs. 3,700 crore), and on November 14, she will participate in a seminar on -Indonesia in a low carbon economy.
In these meetings and the two countries, the first Treasury officials said that Yellen will seek the cooperation of her G20 colleagues in improving the resilience of the global economy as it continues to weaken in the face of high energy and food costs and inflation. These efforts will include stronger debt restructuring efforts and more work to build food security.
Asked if Yellen will meet with her Chinese counterpart while in Bali, the official said the Treasury Department has no specific meetings to announce at this time.
“We certainly realize that the US-China relationship is one of the most important things we have. Although there are elements of competition and conflict. There are also elements of cooperation, and we look forward to discussing with the Chinese authorities going forward,” the official. he said.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
