India and the United States have launched a bilateral economic and financial partnership that largely focuses on micro-finance, infrastructure and financial sector reforms.
The partnership, launched by visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on Tuesday, aims at increasing trade and investment and create more job opportunities in both countries.
India asked U.S. investors to participate in its $600 billion infrastructure program in the next five years, while America sought greater financial cooperation with India for bringing about global economic stability.
US argues that more open Indian markets would help make it easier and cheaper for India to access capital, which in turn could help finance the country's growing infrastructure needs.
Geithner, on his maiden visit of India as Treasury Secretary, also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while delegations from the two countries held the first round of dialogue under the new economic partnership.
Geithner's visit was aimed at boosting long-term economic cooperation between India and the U.S. and placing their relationship on a more productive level.
Addressing a joint press conference with Mukherjee after holding talks with him, Geithner said: "Deepening our ties with India is critical to the broader global effort to develop a framework for strong... and balanced growth and will facilitate more trade, investment and job creation in our two countries."
Geithner said such a cooperation would be critical for a stable global financial system, more balanced global economic growth "that is less dependent on the willingness of Americans to live beyond our means... and a more open global trading system.
"We meet at a time of encouraging prospects for the US and Indian economies and the beginning of global economic recovery," he added.
He was highly appreciative of India's handling of the financial crisis "with a steady hand" and added that the country "has emerged from the global recession stronger and faster than most other large economies."
The Indian Finance Minister said: "Immense opportunities are there for investment in the infrastructure sector. As much as $600 billion can be invested in port, communications, road... in the next five years."
He added that the initial round of talks focused on "global development with a special emphasis on US and Indian economies including monetary and fiscal policies, financial sector regulations and managing capital flow, infrastructure finance and Public Private Partnership (PPP)."
The U.S. Treasury Secretary also held discussions with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Wednesday, he was scheduled to visit India's financial capital, Mumbai, where he will meet both Indian and US business leaders.
He is scheduled to visit India's financial capital, Mumbai, on Wednesday.
Donald Kohn, Vice-Chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve, and U.S. Treasury officials accompanied Geithner during his two-day visit.
The economic and financial partnership was announced by US President Barack Obama during Singh's visit to Washington in November last year.
The Partnership Agreement is expected to spur regular cabinet-level US-India meetings throughout the year.
U.S. is among India's largest trading partners with a bilateral trade turnover of $40 billion in 2009. U.S. firms have significant amount of foreign direct investment in India.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.