Tokyo: Nishimura Yasutoshi, Japan's Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry, and Yamada Kenji, Japan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs attended the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Ministerial meeting held in Detroit on May 27, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release.
During the meeting, the participants discussed four pillars - trade, supply chains, clean economy and fair economy and announced the conclusion of the negotiations of the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement.
Yamada Kenji emphasised that ensuring inclusivity of the IPEF is "essential" and announced that Japan will implement training programs with Singapore among other initiatives as examples of concrete cooperation.
According to Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs press release, these programs are aimed to be conducive to the implementation of the IPEF initiatives, including supply chain. During his stay, Yamada Kenji held informal talks with all IPEF members individually and bilateral meetings with representatives of the United States, Fiji, Malaysia, and Vietnam, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release. In these meetings and talks, State Minister Yamada and his counterparts discussed the IPEF and other matters in the Indo-Pacific region and stated that they will continue their cooperation in this regard.
The IPEF Ministerial was co-hosted by US Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and was attended by representatives from Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan, according to Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal virtually participated in the IPEF Ministerial Meeting. During the meeting, Piyush Goyal reiterated India's commitment to building resilient supply chains.
He tweeted, "Virtually participated in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) Ministerial Meeting held in Detroit, USA. Reiterated India's commitment towards building resilient supply chains and a clean & fair economy to spur further growth in the region. During his intervention under the supply chains (Pillar-II), Piyush Goyal lauded the negotiating teams in delivering an expeditiously negotiated and mutually beneficial Agreement that could propel deeper integration of economies and supply chains within IPEF. He called for the implementation of all the action-oriented cooperative and collaborative elements identified as part of this agreement.
During his intervention under the clean economy (Pillar-III), Goyal highlighted that India would like the Pillar focus to be centred on action-oriented elements, like mobilization of low-cost long-tenure climate finance and enhanced access to clean energy technologies, Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in the press release.
In the intervention under the fair economy (Pillar-IV), Goyal highlighted the strong measures taken by India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve India's legislative and administrative framework to provide a corruption-free administration and reaffirmed India's commitment to implement United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards, according to Ministry of Commerce and Industry press release. —ANI