Mar. 5 – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will head to New Delhi next month to meet with Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and launch the first U.S.–India Economic and Financial Partnership meeting.
The partnership “will serve as a platform for greater cooperation on economic issues of importance to both nations,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
“Both countries recognize the importance of expanding bilateral economic engagement, noting the rapid growth of U.S.–India economic ties and the increasing range of global macroeconomic and financial issues on which the United States and India cooperate,” the Treasury said.
Cabinet officials from the two countries will hammer out the details of the agreement during the visit, scheduled for April 6-7. Among the issues that will be discussed is how often the ministries will meet.
The U.S. has said that they will loosely model the new partnership on their existing dialogues with China; but with the Indian forum focused primarily on economic and financial cooperation between the U.S. Treasury and India’s finance ministry, rather than the multi-ministerial discussions maintained with China.
On the tail-end of his trip, Mr. Geithner also plans to a meet with U.S. and Indian business leaders in India’s financial center of Mumbai.
The new partnership was first announced last November by U.S. President Barrack Obama after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the White House.
