Ahead of his visit to India next week, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said his aim is to deepen America’s relationship with the “economically and strategically important” country, where he would discuss global reforms and issue of terrorism financing.
“I think there’s certainly a deep commitment on the President Barack Obama’s part to strengthen this relationship, a deep appreciation for the challenges India’s facing and the common interest we are facing on these kinds of things,” Geithner told a group of Indian journalists here.
“I have watched him, listened to the President on this kind of stuff and I know he shares that kind of view very strongly,” he said, adding the sole purpose of his April 5-6 trip is to deepen and strengthen the bilateral relationship.
Geithner said that terrorism financing is one of the issues that would be part of his talks with Indian officials.
“I can’t give you any detail on it (terrorism financing) but I know we will be talking about it as we have always talked about it. We have a lot of very productive, constructive things we have been able to do together on that front, we will keep doing it,” he said.
Geithner, who will formally launch the new US-India Economic and Financial Partnership, along with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, said the main purpose of his maiden trip to New Delhi and Mumbai as Treasury Secretary is to work to “establish a long-term” relationship with India.
“One reason I am going to India is to get a better sense of what is happening there — both in the economy and the broaden reform process in the financial sector and elsewhere. As always I am going to make sure that the leaders in Indian get to understand directly from me how we are managing our challenges here and how thing feel here,” he said.
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Geithner, who would be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh besides Finance Minister Mukherjee and other top Indian officials, said he did not “sense a lot of tension or disagreement with India” on the core parts of global financial reforms. But that did not mean it was not worth talking about it because it was good for both countries to be close on these issues, he observed.
“As you know we are going through a transforming set of reforms here in the financial sector. We have also negotiated a set of broader international principles for reform in the G-20 process, so that we move in parallel, not separately, in this area. I am sure I will have a chance to talk about what we are doing in the United States and what we want to see being done by the major economies as well,” said the Treasury Secretary.
‘Living in India as a kid a great gift’
Geithner said it was a “great gift” for him to have lived in New Delhi for five years during his childhood, where he learnt to play cricket.
“It was a great gift to me and a great gift to any American — to be exposed to India at an early stage,” Geithner told a group of Indian reporters here.
Geithner lived in India from 1968 to 1973, when his father was the Deputy Resident Representative for the Ford foundation in New Delhi. “I went to AIS (American International School), from second to sixth grade. I lived in Friends Colony,” Geithner said. “I grew up with my parents’ friends who were people involved in development at a time when it was a great era of optimism and growth,” he said, vividly recollecting his life in New Delhi.
The Treasury Secretary said, “To watch and see how the impact America had on the world for good and sometimes not so good is a great gift to have as a young kid,” he said.
Geithner says it is in New Delhi that he learnt to play cricket and baseball. “I was lucky, I learnt not just to play cricket, but also baseball,” he said. Though, he added that he no longer plays cricket.
After he left India in 1973, Geithner had been to India four times – all on official or business trips. “I have not spent much time in India and I have not travelled extensively since then,” he said.