Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged more US financial assistance for Ukraine, saying she’s confident the effort will win congressional support despite a looming partisan showdown.
Speaking Friday at a press conference in New Delhi ahead of the G-20 summit, Yellen also said she’s “been surprised by the strength of global growth and how resilient the global economy has proven to be.” She was less upbeat on China’s outlook, saying she sees the world’s No. 2 economy “slowing over time,” but noted that Beijing “has quite a bit of policy space to address these challenges.”
Yellen noted that reaching agreement within the Group of Twenty on language about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remains “challenging.”
“We also remain committed to support for Ukraine and recently put forward a supplemental funding request,” Yellen said. “I’m pleased that there has been bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, for Ukraine, and I feel confident that we’ll be able to make sure that we have funding.”
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy doesn’t plan to include President Joe Biden’s request for $24 billion in emergency funds for Ukraine in a must-pass bill needed to fund US government operations past Oct. 1 unless Democrats back immigration and asylum policies they strongly oppose.
US Priorities
At the New Delhi summit this weekend, US goals include efforts to move forward with debt-relief plans for heavily indebted poor countries, reforms at the World Bank and a plan to increase resources at the International Monetary Fund.
Boosting concessional finance to address global challenges and for crisis response is a key priority for the Biden administration, which has asked Congress for an additional $2.25 billion to boost such funding from the World Bank.
The US expects this could yield as much as $27 billion in concessional finance from the World Bank and hopes its commitment to boosting such resources could help rally peers to also consider similar contributions, a senior Treasury official said.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to skip the Delhi summit provided an opening that Yellen seized upon in her remarks, without mentioning his absence.
With the Biden administration seeking to limit the influence of China across the developing world, Yellen noted that she has visited India four times in 11 months and Biden, in addition to attending the summit, hosted India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington earlier this year.
“Continuing to advance the US-India relationship will be a priority this week,” she said. “Expanding our bilateral economic ties and our cooperation on global challenges is crucially important to us.”
Yellen will join Biden in a meeting with Modi later Friday, the Treasury said. She is also expected to meet with the Italian and Spanish finance ministers.
--With assistance from Akayla Gardner.
