India and the United States have agreed to expand cooperation in targeting the financial networks of major terror outfits, notably lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT), its front organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Haqqani Network.
At the fourth annual meeting of the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership held in Washington on Sunday, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and US Treasury Secretary Jacob lew also decided to deepen dialogue on implementing “anti-money laundering/combating financing of terrorism” standards and enhance cooperation to deal with counterfeiting currency and illicit financial flows.
A joint statement issued after the meeting said the two sides also agreed to work for “a greater understanding of all investment related issues including taxation and IT enabled services, an equitable and principled resolution of ongoing tax disputes, and strengthened bilateral ties in this regard”.
Referring to cooperation on deepening capital markets and strengthening financial regulation, the statement said: “We committed our financial sector experts to holding the next meeting of the Financial Regulatory Dialogue, which brings together our respective financial sector regulators, to consult on the full range of domestic and international regulatory concerns, in India in 2014.”
Besides Secretary lew, the US officials at the meeting included Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Undersecretary lael Brainard, while the Indian team included Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, Secretary Financial Services Rajiv Takru, Ambassador Nirupama Rao and Securities Exchange Board of India Chairman UK Sinha.
The joint statement spoke of the expanding India-US economic and financial ties, noting that despite a challenging global economy, the bilateral trade in goods and services grew from $59.9 billion to $92.5 billion between 2009 and 2012.
India has emerged as one of the fastest growing sources of investment for the United States, with Indian FDI in the US having shot up from just $227 million in 2002 to $5.2 billion in 2012. Total FDI inflows from the US to India from April 2000 to July 2013 are put at nearly $11.5 billion.
“We agreed that sound macroeconomic policies, structural reforms, and strong prudential frameworks will help us increase resiliency to financial market volatility and boost economic growth,” the statement said.
In the light of the recent reaffirmation by President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of their commitment to conclude a high-standard Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), the two co-chairs of the economic partnership said they would speedily address all related trade and investment policy issues of bilateral concern.
The BIT will aim to foster openness to investment, transparency, and predictability, and thereby support economic growth and job creation in both countries, besides removing obstacles and improve the business environment in both countries.
India and the US have also agreed to cooperate in multilateral fora, including the G-20, to achieve reforms for stronger, more sustainable and more balanced growth. “We also reaffirmed the importance of enhancing the credibility, legitimacy and effectiveness of the International Monetary Fund and the urgent need to ratify the 2010 IMF Quota and Governance Reform,” the statement noted.