India part of friendshoring strategy, says Janet Yellen

“The United States is advancing an approach called “friendshoring” to bolster the resilience of our supply chains. We are doing this by strengthening integration with our many trusted trading partners – including India,” the US official said.

“We are seeing progress; as an example, technology companies like Apple and Google have expanded their phone production in India,” she said. “We depend on each other on a daily basis: Indians use WhatsApp to communicate and many American companies rely on Infosys to operate,” Yellen pointed out.

“The US is India’s biggest trading partner. In 2021, our bilateral trade was over $150 billion. Our people-to-people ties affirm the closeness of our relationship. 200,000 Indians are studying in America and enriching our schools and universities,” she said.

Yellen quoted US president Joe Biden and said India is an indispensable partner of the US.

“Through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, or PGII, we are investing in digital technologies that will drive inclusive, resilient growth in India. Under PGII, the United States has announced investments in agri-tech to enable climate-smart agricultural production, and in digital payments systems for microentrepreneurs,” she said.

The US aims to mobilize $200 billion through 2027 for PGII and will look at India as a partner to invest in for its future, the US treasury secretary said.