US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi yesterday for talks to boost ties that are often eclipsed by Washington’s trade with China.
Geithner, beginning a two-day maiden visit as treasury secretary to India, is focusing on enhancing trade and investment with the surging economy and improving global financial stability.
Geithner met Singh for half an hour, an Indian official said, and was later meeting Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to press India to open up its highly regulated markets to US investment.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Washington says freer Indian markets could give the emerging nation cheaper access to capital to finance the billions of dollars needed to overhaul its dilapidated infrastructure, seen as a restraint to higher economic growth.
“We have a huge mutual stake in closer economic ties,” said Geithner, who is accompanied by other senior treasury officials and US Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn.
Geithner was in New Delhi to help formally launch the new US-India Economic and Financial Partnership as he promotes a long-term strategy to give India more parity with China in the US trade mindset.
The project, announced in November by US President Barack Obama during a visit by Singh to Washington, will spur regular Cabinet-level meetings in line with a similar dialogue between the US and China.
Geithner, who spent part of his childhood in India when his father worked for the Ford Foundation, said he also wanted “to build a much stronger cooperative partnership with India on broader global financial issues.”
He said he was keen to talk to Indian policymakers about tightening global standards for controlling risk as markets become more integrated in the wake of the worldwide financial crisis.
“Naturally when we’re holding discussions before the spring meetings of the IMF, World Bank and G20, all those issues will come up,” Mukherjee said.
Bilateral relations have blossomed after years of Cold War mistrust, Indian unease about close US ties with Pakistan and Washington’s displeasure over New Delhi’s acquisition of a nuclear bomb.
Last month, the two countries signed a trade and investment cooperation framework which US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said would tap the “almost limitless potential” of their trade relationship.
“This trip is significant just for the fact that it is happening,” Arvind Subramanian of the Peterson Institute for International Economics said.
“First and foremost, this trip is about symbolism, aimed at establishing a parallelism with the US-China relationship,” he wrote in a recent commentary.
Trade between India and the US has roughly doubled in the last five years as India has become one of the world’s foremost emerging markets.
However, that relationship, for years focused on trade and outsourcing, is increasingly looking toward investment.
Bilateral foreign direct investment reached US$21 billion in 2008, according to the treasury, a pittance compared with flows between the US and Europe or China.
“One reason I am going to India is to get a better sense of what is happening there — both in the economy and the broad reform process in the financial sector,” Geithner said.
He is scheduled to visit Mumbai, India’s business and financial capital, today.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
REGIONAL PEACE: The US is supporting Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities by providing the nation with defensive arms and services, as it aims to maintain cross-strait stability The US on Friday reiterated its support for Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities in a statement affirming its commitment to the Indo-Pacific region. The White House said that Washington has supported Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities through a range of security assistance authorities and resources, including the first-ever use of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) for Taiwan, as well as International Military Education and Training (IMET). US President Joe Biden had identified the Indo-Pacific as the critical region for the future of the US and the world, it said. “In pursuit of regional peace, security and stability, we have reinvested in our defense
RSS