NOIDA, (India): India’s membership in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) will make supply chains resilient between the Asian country and the United States and help the entire region, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday.

Yellen said strong trade and investment, and people-to- people ties make the bilateral economic and financial relationship a critical element to the partnership between the two countries.

“India’s membership in Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, in efforts to make our supply chains more resilient, through what I call friend-shoring, are tightening those ties,” Yellen said on her first trip to India as US Treasury Secretary.

While India is part of the Biden administration’s signature Asian engagement project IPEF, it has opted against joining the IPEF trade pillar negotiations.

Earlier in the day, Yellen visited Microsoft research facility on the outskirts of New Delhi, before addressing a joint news conference with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

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Sitharaman said the meeting between the two will facilitate a coordinated policy stance on global economic challenges facing the world.

“Meeting today we lend greater rigor to economic relationship, strengthen businesses-to-business links, and facilitate coordinated policy stance to address the pressing global economic challenges,” Sitharaman said. Sitharaman and Yellen will participate in a US-India Economic and Financial Partnership dialogue in New Delhi and will discuss India’s leadership agenda for the G20 group of major economies next year.