India Seen as Key Technology Partner in U.S. Pax Silica Initiative

Washington — The Trump administration has identified India as a potential “comprehensive partner” in its Pax Silica initiative, citing opportunities to strengthen semiconductor cooperation, secure critical mineral supplies and reduce vulnerabilities in global manufacturing networks.

Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said following the initiative’s launch that Washington sees considerable potential to expand its technology and economic partnership with New Delhi.

“India has the potential to be a comprehensive partner,” Helberg said in response to a question from IANS.

“Our administrations have announced their collaboration on the trust initiative. We already work together on a whole array of different issues, and Pax Silica opens the door to deepen our collaboration on semiconductor manufacturing, on critical minerals processing.”

Helberg said India and the United States share concerns about the resilience of global supply chains and the risks created by dependence on a limited number of manufacturing hubs.

“Our countries fundamentally share the exact same concerns about the fragility of the status quo in our supply chains,” he said.

He also cited India’s large youth population as an important advantage for cooperation in innovation, entrepreneurship and technology development.

“India is home to one of the largest youth populations in the world. We also see the same opportunities in terms of promoting a developer ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and jobs for our people. So we’re very excited to work with India.”

Asked about India’s concerns regarding China and the potential for joint action to address supply chain risks, Helberg said the challenge extended beyond any single country.

“You know, we think about it as a problem of over-concentration in our supply chains, and there are over-concentration issues that are not unique to China,” he said.

He said the global economy remained vulnerable because critical supply chains depended on “single points of failure.”

“Fundamentally, the issue is the supply chain right now is reliant on single points of failure, whether they be logistical or whether they be, you know, industrial.”

Helberg said Washington and New Delhi agreed on the need to reduce those vulnerabilities.

“We are totally on the same page about the fact that these single points of failure need to be de-risked for the health of the global economy,” he said.

Pax Silica is a U.S.-led initiative intended to expand cooperation with partner countries in advanced technology, economic security and resilient supply chains.

India and the United States have expanded their partnership in recent years across semiconductors, artificial intelligence, critical and emerging technologies, critical minerals and supply chain resilience. Both governments have also emphasized the need to reduce dependence on concentrated manufacturing networks and develop trusted technology partnerships. (Source: IANS)