No Country, Including the US or China, Can Ignore India, Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India wants to enhance its influence in the world as one in every six persons is Indian and the world cannot ignore India's economy.

"The entire world cannot ignore our economy, no country, whether the US that is far away or China which is very close, can ignore India," Union Minister Sitharaman said.

Speaking on the 'Bretton Woods Institutions at 80: Priorities for the Next Decade', at a Centre for Global Development event, off-sites of the World Bank and International Annual Meetings 2024 in Washington, D.C., the Union Minister stated that India had always stood by multilateral institutions and did not, at any point in time, seek to undermine any multilateral institution.

She said that expectations pinned on multilateral institutions are fissured away as no solutions are coming out of them.

When asked how nations like India and other big emerging markets can step up and play a role that helps to take ownership of that process and drive the reform forward, Union Minister Sitharaman said, "Yes, absolutely possible". And on this, I just want to again start from where a thought of my Prime Minister came in and this is well thought through. He once said India's priority is not to impose its dominance. In the sense we have the biggest democracy, we have in the world, and the largest population but to enhance its influence. Now why do we want to have our influence enhanced? It's only because of today when one in every six people in the world is an Indian and you cannot just ignore our economy and the way it's growing-that's the second.

"And third, the skilled manpower which today is in India and also everywhere else running large corporations which are for running institutions which are in large countries, developed countries. But yet that particular point that Larry mentioned, that in today's world, the course which developed countries took, starting from producing textiles, cycles, bicycles and something else, and reaching development, is no longer available. It is going to be something else," she added.

Union Finance Minister said, stressing that no country can ignore India : "Are we in a position to define that path? That, one flag post which I would like to draw your attention to about India and its role is leading on technology, servicing through technology, leveraging technology and that's where when you look at Indians everywhere you're saying they are the ones before sitting and readily saying yes we'll give you the systems which can run complex corporate whether it's a refining system, oil refining system, whether it's multilateral banking system or anything else. So, you really can't ignore and also the geopolitical neighborhood in which we live. No country, the US which is very far away from us or China which is very close to us, cannot ignore us. "
Expressing India's support for multilateral institutions, the Union Minister said, "I think we have followed policies of strategic and peaceful multilateralism. The multilateralism of which you want us to speak about.". India has always stood in favor of multilateral institutions. We didn't want any time undermining of any multilateral institution. But progressively we see the hope and the expectations which are pinned on multilateral institutions are fissured away because we think no solutions are coming out of them."

"So again, Larry said, these institutions now are not offering an alternative pathway.". That is where one of my points is, the core competencies of these institutions, in that they look at so many different economies, look at the dynamism with which some economies are growing and some which are getting stunted, the information base that they have, they should be the first ones to share the information and they should be the first ones to also suggest without imposing, she added.

The panelists comprised Emeritus President and Charles W Eliot University Professor, Harvard University, Lawrence H Summers, Spain's Minister of Economy, Trade and Business Carlos Cuerpo, and Egypt's Minister of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation Rania A. Al Mashat.
Union minister Sitharaman said multilateral institutions need self-strengthening for global good.

She said that building for the future is a pretty ambitious task and appealed for the Bretton Woods institutions to be part of the fray.

She further added, "Well, in one of my earlier conversations with Larry, he actually said to the effect, how would institutions like IMF and World Bank go about telling an economy to a country that your economy is in a pathetic position, you can't do anything about it. They can't they cannot and they need not.".

"But yet, they can, with a wealth of information and experience and the manpower, the kind of human resources they have, share in time information with countries and also lead to building the strength of institutions, not tear down institutions, but strengthen up institutions for the global good, which I would think is very necessary to strengthen multilateralism. We are in favour of multilateralism.". We, of course, spoke about a lot of things about …, LiFE, which is a mission in India, LiFE being the lifestyle for the environment, adapt to certain kinds of living and so on," she added.

Union Finance Minister stressing that the future should be shaped by the Bretton Woods institutions said, "Shaping the future is one very ambitious nice goal and we need to follow that and we need to have Bretton Woods institutions work on that rather than reacting to future developments. Unfortunately, in the last few decades, we see them reacting to future developments with the strength that they have. And I think, therefore, information sharing is one thing.

There are two Bretton Woods Institutions: World Bank and International Monetary Fund, commonly referred to as the IMF. They were created by the delegates of 43 countries at a conference convened in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, US in July 1944 with the aim of helping rebuild the devastated war-torn economy and promoting international cooperation.

Union Minister Sitharaman said in her remarks, "India has of course, International Solar Alliance, Biofuel Alliance, and we are talking about disaster-resilient infrastructure and all these need money. All these need help for countries which are in smaller economies, island economies, which need them.". So, through the digital public infrastructure that we have publicly funded and taken it up to different countries, we are spreading that attention and I think these are areas in which India will contribute."

Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in Washington, DC on Wednesday.

India's Ambassador to the US, Vinay Kwatra, welcomed her in Washington, DC.

Before visiting Washington, DC, Sitharaman was in New York.

A post by X reports: "Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs @nsitharaman is welcomed at Washington DC by India's Ambassador to USA, @AmbVMKwatra after her arrival from New York, today evening.