Delhi visit to strengthen Indo-US, G20 ties: Geithner

Ahead of his visit to India starting Tuesday, US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner said on Friday that the US has a huge stake in closer economic ties with India; and that a key focus of his visit will be cooperation among the Group of 20 leading economies on three core areas: global growth, global recovery and financial reform.

He also sought to allay Indian concerns about the Obama administration's moves to curtail outsourcing.

"It's about putting in place higher standards globally for constraining risk-taking across the major institutions as markets become more integrated," Geithner said in an interaction in his office with Indian media.

He said while the G20 countries were working very closely on things like climate change, energy policy, multi-trade agenda and terrorist financing, "we want to make sure that we are working together to reinforce that process of recovery, of expansion".

"China and India are ahead of the major economies, the US is ahead of the other major economies and the balance of policy is going to shift over time, but we're going to make sure we're doing that carefully together so we don't risk undermining the process of recovery and reform," he said.

Another reason for the trip to India, Geithner said, was "to get a better sense of what is happening there: Both in the economy and the broader reform process in the financial sector and elsewhere. And of course as always I am going to make sure that the leaders in India get to understand directly from me how we are managing our challenges here and how things feel here."