US says India remains 'key partner' despite not joining Pax Silica

Washington, Dec 18 (IANS) The United States has underlined that India remains a "highly strategic potential partner" on supply chain security and advanced technologies, even though New Delhi was not part of the inaugural Pax Silica Summit, a new US-led initiative focused on securing the global silicon and semiconductor supply chain.

Speculation linking India's absence to political tensions with Washington was misplaced and incorrect, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg told reporters at a news conference organised by the Foreign Press Centre here.

"So, my understanding is that there was a lot of speculation behind India not participating in the Pax Silica Summit," Helberg said. "I want to be clear that the conversations between the United States and India pertaining to trade arrangements are a completely separate and parallel track to our discussions on supply chain security. We are not conflating those two things."

Helberg added: "We view India as a highly strategic potential partner on supply chain security-related efforts, and we welcome the opportunity to engage with them."

The Pax Silica initiative, launched last week, brings together an initial group of countries closely linked to semiconductor manufacturing and advanced technology supply chains, including Singapore, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

The framework is designed to reduce single points of failure in global supply chains that underpin industries ranging from smartphones and automobiles to artificial intelligence.

Helberg said the initiative fits into a broader US economic security strategy built around four pillars: rebalancing trade, stabilising conflict zones, reindustrialising the United States, and securing supply chains.

"And so we launched a flagship initiative called Pax Silica that aims at securing the silicon supply chain, which is the lifeblood of cutting-edge technologies, from cars to the smartphone industry and artificial intelligence," he said.

On India specifically, Helberg stressed that engagement with New Delhi was ongoing and active. "I am in nearly daily communication with our interlocutors in Delhi," he said, adding that Washington was "actively determining ways of actually deepening that collaboration quickly."

He also pointed to an upcoming opportunity for high-level engagement, noting that he would attend the India AI Impact Summit in February. "This will provide us an opportunity to meet in person and hopefully determine some tangible milestones," he said.

Helberg said Washington plans to "very much deepen our bilateral collaboration between the United States and India on economic security matters," and suggested that Indian participation in future Pax Silica-related efforts remained a real possibility.

Earlier in the briefing, Helberg explained that the initial group of Pax Silica countries was deliberately limited to those forming the "nucleus of semiconductor manufacturing", such as Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Netherlands, before expanding further down the supply chain to areas like critical minerals.

The initiative, he said, is focused on the supply side rather than buyers, differentiating it from earlier efforts such as the Mineral Security Partnership. "It is a supply-side strategy that allows us to create channels of communication with the companies responsible for making and operating the global supply chain," Helberg said.

Helberg described the Pax Silica Summit and declaration as "historic", saying it marked the first time countries had organised collectively around compute, silica, and minerals as shared strategic assets. "We believe that the declaration reflects a new foreign policy consensus that economic security is national security," he said.

The Pax Silica push comes amid intensifying global competition over semiconductors and AI technologies, sectors seen as critical to both economic growth and national security.

India, which has rolled out incentive schemes to build a domestic semiconductor ecosystem and has positioned itself as a trusted technology partner, has increasingly featured in US strategic thinking.

Washington and New Delhi have in recent years expanded cooperation through platforms such as the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), reflecting a shared interest in resilient supply chains and advanced manufacturing.

--IANS

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