India Recommits Efforts For Free, Open, Inclusive Indo-Pacific: Goyal

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Friday attended the ministerial meeting of the India-Pacific Economic Forum (IPEF) in Los Angeles.

During the meeting, he said that there have been very useful engagements with the 14 members of the IPEF. The officials from member nations worked hard to prepare the ground for such interactions.

Goyal said that the IPEF would finalise a framework within which member nations could interact on different areas of mutual interest.

The minister took to Twitter and wrote, "India recommits to its efforts for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific as we head into the ministerial meeting of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity." 

Prior to the IPEF meeting, Goyal also met Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell in Los Angeles. 

While interacting with the media, Goyal said that his meeting with the US counterparts was very cordial and US officials were excited about the good work happening between US and India. 

"They are positive about expanding our trade and investment in high-tech areas and wish to further see resilient supply chains between the two nations," he said.

Elaborating on the discussions held with the US, Goyal said, “Both nations believed that we need to have self-reliance as a core philosophy and have resilient supply chains between trusted partners who believe in transparent economies and rules-based trading systems.”

He added that the US was very keen to work with India so that our dependence on other countries, particularly those nations where we have faced severe problems in the last two to three years can be reduced.

“I had informed his counterparts in the US that India was looking to have very contemporary and modern laws in the digital space while maintaining high levels of data privacy, particularly of our citizens’ personal data," Goyal stated.