Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in Washington on Sunday (local time) to attend the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund’s 2023 Spring Meetings, as well as other G20 meetings. Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu greeted her. Sitharaman is in the United States for a week.
Union Finance Minister will meet with Finance Ministers and Central Bankers from around the world. The conference is set to take place today at the IMF’s headquarters in Washington, DC. On April 12, Sitharaman and Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das will co-chair the 2nd G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, FMCBG meeting.
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.
Furthermore, on April 12, 2023, India, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank will co-chair a conference of the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable to explore the present global debt picture and solutions to address existing debt restructuring difficulties. “A high-level seminar on “Macro-financial implications of Crypto assets” will be held on April 14, 2023, to review the macro-financial implications of Crypto Assets and discuss policies to leverage benefits and contain risks.” Smt. Sitharaman will also meet with the G20 Expert Group on MDBs on April 15, 2023, to address the need for an upgraded MDBs ecosystem for the twenty-first century to finance sustainable development goals and transboundary problems,” according to the announcement.