.jpg)
Minister Sitharaman, thank you for graciously hosting our delegation for the ninth EFP.
We are also glad to be joined by our colleagues from the Federal Reserve and the Reserve Bank of India.
As the world’s two largest democracies, these annual gatherings are an opportunity to deepen the economic bonds between our two countries.
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.
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.
And India’s membership in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and efforts to make our supply chains more resilient through what I call friend-shoring are tightening those ties.
Indeed, our collaboration in this forum can not only promote each of our economies’ growth and stability, but also can be instrumental to supporting economic prosperity across the Indo-Pacific region.
Looking ahead, we’re also eager to discuss our shared priorities as India assumes the presidency of the G20 in the coming weeks.
We also hope 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.
Throughout the discussions, I hope we can be open, frank, and productive.
We are committed to strengthening our bilateral economic relationship with India and to deepening our level of cooperation and collaboration.
I would now like to turn back to you, Minister Sitharaman.
