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Nirmala Sitharaman's Official US Visit: Key Highlights Of Friday
23 Apr 2022, 01:39 PM IST 
Friday highlights of Nirmala Sitharaman's official US visit
- In a meeting with Boeing Defense Chief Executive Officer Ted Colbert, Nirmala Sitharaman discussed opportunities for investments and growth in maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) and aircraft leasing in India.
- "Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman met Mr Ted Colbert, President & CEO @BoeingDefense, to discuss opportunities for investments and growth in #MRO and aircraft leasing," the finance ministry said in a tweet.
- "Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman and Rt. Hon. @AlokSharma_RDG discussed #climate #action #goals and ongoing and potential interventions to implement a #sustainable, #clean and #green transition to address #ClimateChange," the finance ministry said in another tweet.
- During a meeting with World Bank Group President David Malpass, the Finance Minister said India is concerned about the risks to global recovery due to the rising uncertainty from the enhanced geopolitical tensions.
- Ms Sitharaman also underlined the need to rescue countries facing debt stress due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the recent geopolitical developments.
- "On account of the pandemic and the recent geopolitical developments, there is a need for the World Bank to come to the rescue of countries facing debt stress. In particular, the World Bank needs to pay special attention to Sri Lanka, which is facing an unprecedented economic situation," she said.
- Participating in the 105th Meeting of the Development Committee Plenary, the Finance Minister said India's economic growth in the current year is robust and highest among all large economies and reflects India's resilience and strong recovery.
- Ms Sitharaman said that despite a global food crisis in the aftermath of the Ukrainian war, countries like India, which have the potential to address this by exporting agricultural products, in particular cereals, are facing difficulties from the World Trade Organization.
- Responding to India's concerns, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, during the just-concluded annual Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, said that the organisation is looking at it very positively and hopefully, it would be sorted, the minister told a group of Indian reporters.
- "I was very positively inspired by the fact that in the plenary...response from the WTO was very positive. I hope we'll break that decade-long restriction which has held us back from using our agricultural products after taking care of the buffer we need for food security purposes. So that the farmers also can get a better return," Ms Sitharaman said in response to a question.
- "The opportunities that we have identified and have progressed in it...our export of food grains, particularly wheat. We are probably now tapping for our manufacturing goods to move to destinations that are now suddenly found as their suppliers are in a situation they can't continue with uninterrupted supply," she said.
- The war has revealed some realities to the world, she added.
