Washington [US], April 14 : Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the high-level meeting on Sri Lanka's debt issues on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)- World Bank (WB) Spring Meetings in Washington DC on Thursday (Local Time), according to the statement released by Ministry of Finance.
The purpose of the meeting was to demonstrate the multilateral cooperation regarding the debt restructuring process among the creditors, together with Sri Lanka.
At the event, the ministers announced the launch of the debt restructuring negotiation process in Sri Lanka under the three Co-Chairs India, Japan, and France, to lead the coordinated debt restructuring of Sri Lanka.
Apart from Sitharaman, Suzuki Shunichi, Finance Minister of Japan and Emmanuel Moulin, Director General of the Treasury, France, and Shehan Semasinghe, State Minister of Finance of Sri Lanka, were also present at the meeting. Rl Wickremesinghe, President and Finance minister of Sri Lanka also participated in the event virtually.
Union Finance Minister Sitharaman expressed India's commitment to supporting Sri Lanka in dealing with its current economic crisis. She emphasised that collaboration among creditors is important to ensure transparency and equality in the treatment of all creditors in the debt restructuring discussions, the release read.
India, under its 'Neighbourhood First' policy, has always come forward to help debt-ridden Sri Lanka, and in the latest instance, New Delhi has also distributed the ration in Kalmunai on March 16.
Earlier, in February, the Union Finance minister met the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India, Milinda Moragoda where they discussed the ways and means to utilize the available resources in the 1 billion USD Indian line of credit to import urgently required essential pharmaceuticals, which are in short supply in Sri Lanka, read High Commission of Sri Lanka in India press release.
Meanwhile, in the IMF-WB Spring Meetings, Sitharaman stated, "despite this year's projected growth rate of over 6 per cent for the Indian economy, we remain concerned about the global economic outlook and geopolitical environment", according to a tweet posted by the ministry of finance on Thursday.
During the meeting, the finance minister mentioned that the "Evolution of the World Bank Group - A Report to Governors" provides a historic opportunity to think collectively about the evolution of the World Bank Group.
According to the finance ministry's tweets, Nirmala Sitharaman posited that World Bank should continue to work for its vision of 'A World Free of Poverty' and seeks to achieve its mission of 'ending extreme poverty' and 'promoting shared prosperity' in a manner that is inclusive, resilient and sustainable.
The ministry also tweeted, "During her intervention, Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman suggested that the global public goods #GPG should also be brought into the focus as the third goal."
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