Sitharaman to attend World Bank, IMF, G20 meetings in Washington

Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu received Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday (local time).

Washington: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday (local time) reached Washington to attend the 2023 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund and other G20 meetings.

She was received by Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu. Sitharaman is on a week-long visit to the US.

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The Union Finance Minister will be attending meetings with Finance Ministers and Central Bankers from across the world. The meeting is scheduled to take place today at IMF Headquarters in Washington.

Sitharaman and Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das will also jointly chair the 2nd G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, FMCBG meeting on April 12.

Around 350 delegates from G20 members, 13 invitee countries, and various international and regional organisations will participate in the meeting.

They will engage in multilateral discussions centred around a broad spectrum of pressing global issues. During the meeting, the focus will be on issues such as addressing food and energy insecurity, managing global debt vulnerabilities, strengthening Multilateral Development Banks, mobilising finance for climate action and accelerating progress on International Tax and Financial Sector issues.

The Finance Ministry said the meeting will take stock of the progress made on outcomes envisaged under India’s G20 Finance Track agenda.

The 2nd G20 FMCBG meeting will advance efforts towards the preparation of G20 India Finance Track deliverables for the 3rd G20 FMCBG meeting to be held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat in July this year.

These meetings are expected to provide informed Finance Track contributions to the Leaders Declaration set for adoption in the New Delhi Summit in September 2023.

The 2nd G20 FMCBG meeting will comprise of three sessions – global economy and international financial architecture; sustainable finance, financial sector and financial inclusion; and international taxation.

“The focus of these sessions will be to deliberate on issues such as addressing food & energy insecurity, managing global debt vulnerabilities, strengthening Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), mobilising finance for climate action, advancing financial inclusion, and accelerating progress on International Tax and Financial Sector issues. The meeting will take stock of the progress made on outcomes envisaged under India’s G20 Finance Track agenda,” an official release earlier said.

In a high-level meeting on Tuesday, the Finance Minister will meet the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to discuss issues of mutual interest.

Further, a meeting of the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable will be co-chaired by India, International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank on April 12, 2023, to discuss the current global debt landscape and ways to address existing challenges in debt restructuring.

“On April 14, 2023, a high-level seminar on “Macro-financial implications of Crypto assets” will be held to review the macro-financial implications of Crypto Assets and discuss policies to leverage benefits and contain risks. Smt. Sitharaman will also meet the G20 Expert Group on strengthening MDBs on April 15, 2023, to discuss the need for an updated MDBs ecosystem for the 21st century towards financing sustainable development goals and transboundary challenges,” the release said.