'Untrue': India says after report claims FM Sitharaman asks Asian Development Bank to cut funding for Pakistan

FM Nirmala Sitharaman met ADB President Masato Kanda

India has demanded that Pakistan's funding be cut by the Asian Development Bank, news agency ANI has reported. This comes after India's strict measures against the neighbouring country, following the deadly Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives on April 22.

Sources said that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a meeting with Asian Development Bank President Masato Kanda on Monday, demanded that the bank cut funding for Pakistan.

Later, however, a clarification said that all such reports claiming that Finance Minister Sitharam had discussed any Pakistan-related issues with Kanda were "baseless and untrue".

Sources also told ANI that India will also be approaching FATF (Financial Action Task Force) to demand that Pakistan be included in the grey list.

The Finance Ministry, in an X post, said that the Finance Minister reiterated that India focuses on private sector-led economic growth and has been consistently creating a conducive policy and regulatory ecosystem through bold initiatives such as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, Corporate Tax Rate Reduction and GST implementation, Production-Linked Incentives, National Infrastructure Pipeline, GatiShakti National Master Plan, and StartupIndia, among others, for greater Ease of Doing Business.

India's demand to cut Pakistan's funding from the Asian Development Bank comes after stringent measures taken by India against Pakistan, in retaliation against the Pahalgam terror attack.

India has, since the attack, suspended the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan. India has also banned all Pakistani nationals and ordered them to leave India and return to Pakistan within a stipulated deadline.