On the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sat down with the Atlantic Council for a wide-ranging interactive session on the future of the global economy — and the full exchange is now available to watch.

India's voice at the Bangkok sidelines

The session, tagged under the hashtag #FutureOfEcon, was organised by the Washington-based Atlantic Council — one of the world's most closely watched international affairs think tanks — and brought Sitharaman face-to-face with a global policy audience at one of the year's most consequential gatherings of finance ministers and central bankers.

India has participated in IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings every year since its membership began in 1945, and Finance Ministry engagements with think tanks on the sidelines have long formed a standard plank of India's multilateral economic diplomacy. But sideline sessions with institutions like the Atlantic Council carry weight beyond protocol — they shape how global investors and policymakers read India's economic outlook and its position on international financial architecture.

What these sessions typically cover

Sideline discussions at IMF-World Bank meetings typically traverse India's near-term growth prospects, financial-sector stability, and positions on global cooperation frameworks — from debt restructuring in the developing world to the reform of multilateral lending institutions. For a G20 economy that has positioned itself as a bridge between the Global South and advanced economies, Sitharaman's platform here is anything but ceremonial.

The full video of the session has been shared publicly, giving domestic audiences, investors, and policymakers direct access to her unscripted exchange with the Atlantic Council moderators.

Bangkok as a multilateral stage

That this year's Annual Meetings are being hosted on the sidelines in Bangkok — a city that occasionally anchors major international financial gatherings in the Asia-Pacific — puts India's Finance Minister at the centre of a regional and global conversation simultaneously. With the global economy navigating uneven post-pandemic recoveries, persistent inflation pressures in several markets, and ongoing debates over IMF quota reform, the timing of the session adds an extra layer of significance to every word on the table.

The Finance Ministry is expected to release any follow-up statements on bilateral meetings or policy positions announced during the broader Annual Meetings engagement.