New Delhi: Despite “obvious problems” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the country’s absence from G20 initiatives, the grouping has been extremely effective under India’s leadership, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said.
Yellen also told reporters Friday that advancing US-India relations would be a priority this week.
Yellen said: “We highly value our bilateral relationship with India… The US is home to the largest Indian diaspora outside of Asia and is India’s largest export market. Expanding our bilateral economic ties and our cooperation on global challenges is crucially important to us.”
Replying to a query on the impact Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping’s absence at the Leaders Summit would have, she said the G20 remained an effective body and that it was the prime solver of global challenges.
“I believe the G20… in spite of obvious problems due to Russia’s war against Ukraine and Russia’s general absence from G20 initiatives… has been extremely effective,” she said. “And especially under India’s leadership, our goals for the G20 have coincided closely with those of India. We’ve tackled very important challenges.”
Yellen said the US appreciated India’s leadership and looked forward to hosting it in 2026. “And even without Russia’s active participation and the tensions the war has created, I still see the G20 as highly effective,” she added.
Yellen also said the US was monitoring the economic slowdown in China, but added it would not have “a very significant, direct impact” on the US. However, some countries in East Asia are more likely to be affected by the slowdown, she added.
“China faces a variety of both short and longer-term global challenges — economic challenges that we’ve been monitoring carefully, including less of a pickup in consumer spending than had been anticipated in the aftermath of the COVID restrictions, as well as long standing issues with respect to the property sector and debt,” the US treasury secretary explained.
In the longer term, she said China would face issues because of a shrinking labour force because its population growth has turned negative.
“That said, China has quite a bit of policy space to address these challenges,” she added.
Yellen said the most significant negative influence to global growth was “Russia’s war on Ukraine”, which has escalated energy and food prices.
“And as many at G20 meetings have stated repeatedly: The most important thing we could do for global growth is for Russia to end its brutal war on Ukraine,” she stressed.
The treasury secretary also added that the US remained committed to “extensive and strategic multilateral action” in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“The price cap and sanctions, both the result of unprecedented global collaboration, are having powerful impacts on Russia’s ability to wage its brutal and unjust war,” she added.