At a press conference held in Washington on April 13, 2023, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that India and Japan can work together to achieve greater synergy and cooperation between the G-7 and G-20 member countries.
“We are certainly looking forward to having greater interaction with the Japanese government and in its capacity as G-7 President, we are exploring all possible areas of cooperation and areas of mutual interests so that we can stand together and serve global requirements as time demands,” she said.
The countries continue to have engagement in areas of food security, development, finance, environment, digitalisation, climate, energy, health and disaster risk.
Later in the day, the finance minister met her Japanese counterpart Shunichi Suzuki to have a greater understanding of what Japan expects to achieve through the G-7 presidency and where India can work together with Tokyo after assuming the G-20 presidency.
Japan has invited India for dialogue with the partners at the G-7 Finance Minister and central governors which will happen on May 12, 2023. As things stand, I propose to go and attend the meeting and actively engage with the G-7 finance ministers”, she said.
During the meeting with her Japanese counterpart, Sitharaman thanked and acknowledged Japan’s continued support towards achieving the goals set under the 20 India presidency agenda and conveyed best wishes for Japan’s G-7 Presidency Summit in May 2023.
The Finance Minister also sought continued cooperation between India and Japan on issues related to a common framework, strengthening of multilateral coordination to address increasing debt vulnerabilities, and continued efforts in improving debt transparency.
The two ministers also emphasised and agreed on the need to collaborate as G-7 and G-20 presidencies on issues of global importance, the financial ministry tweeted.
India assumed a year-long presidency of the G-20 in December 2022. It aims to host a leader’s summit in New Delhi in early September 2023. The G-20 is an important forum for the world’s twenty leading and developing economies.
The International Group of Seven (G-7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, the US, the UK, Italy and Japan.
Additionally, the European Union is a “non-enumerated member.”
