NEW DELHI: Seeking to nudge India to cut trade ties with China and Russia, US treasury secretary Janet Yellen on Friday said it is high time the world moved away from doing business with “risky countries”.
Pitching the concept of ‘friendshoring’, where countries will source their needs from those with shared values, she said: “For too long, countries around the world have been overly dependent on risky countries or a single source for critical inputs.
We are proactively deepening economic integration with trusted trading partners like India.” Meanwhile, in a separate development that could sweeten the pitch, the US Department of Treasury on Friday removed India from its Currency Monitoring List. India had been on the list for the last two years.
Yellen also noted that the while the Ukraine war has brought distress to the world economy with energy prices skyrocketing, the challenges from the conflict and supply strains have in fact brought India and the US closer together. India is an indispensable partner to the US, Yellen added.
Addressing the media jointly with Yellen, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India and the US will look forward to strengthening bilateral ties with greater vigour. “We will continue to rely on close cooperation with the US to address the global economic challenges in a more coordinated manner and in strengthening multilateralism,” she said.