JOC Staff | Oct 10, 2012 10:41AM EDT
The U.S. and India agreed to accelerate “cooperation” and identify new ways to support free trade and investment aimed at facilitating “stronger growth.”
The agreement came when the senior officials of the two countries –- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram -- held talks in New Delhi on Monday as part of the third India-U.S. Economic and Financial Partnership Summit.
“We have agreed to deepen our cooperation bilaterally and in multilateral fora, including the G-20, to contribute toward steering the global economy out of uncertainties and achieve strong, sustainable and balanced growth going forward,” a joint declaration said.
The declaration outlines the importance of enhanced cooperation in “infrastructure financing,” citing New Delhi’s plans to spend an estimated $1 trillion on infrastructure development under the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017).
“Infrastructure Debt Funds and other recent capital market reforms offer huge investment opportunities for U.S. businesses and investors,” it said.