New Delhi, Oct 9: Committed to strengthening bilateral economic ties, India and the US today discussed ways to lower trade and investment barriers further.
In a joint statement after the India-US Economic and Financial Partnership meeting, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the two sides will also strengthen co-operation to combat money laundering and terror financing.
They said India and the US are committed to exploring new areas to deepen and broaden economic and financial ties.
“Both countries recognise 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... “We discussed ways we can further lower barriers to trade and investment to facilitate stronger growth and job creation,” the statement said.
“Our work continues on infrastructure financing.”
At the meeting, the two sides discussed economic and financial developments in their economies and in the world.
“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 achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth going forward,” the statement said.
The two sides agreed to expand cooperation to deepen capital markets and strengthen financial regulations.
The third partnership meeting was attended by RBI Governor D Subbarao and US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, among others.
“The Partnership (launched in 2010) meetings have served as the forum for the highest level of engagement between India and the United States,” the statement added.
The growing bilateral trade and investment across products, services and technology “is a sign of our commitment to build our relationship on a solid foundation that utilises our mutual strengths”, it said.
