India a key tech partner, says US official after Pax Silica launch

Washington, June 26 (IANS) The Donald Trump administration on Friday identified India as a potential “comprehensive partner” under its Pax Silica initiative, saying the two countries are aligned on strengthening supply chains, expanding semiconductor cooperation, and reducing dependence on vulnerable manufacturing networks.

After the launch of the initiative, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said Washington sees significant opportunities to broaden technology and economic cooperation 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 similar concerns over the resilience of global supply chains.

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

He also pointed to India’s demographic advantage as an opportunity to deepen cooperation in innovation.

“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 by IANS about India’s concerns over China and whether the two countries could work together to address supply chain risks, Helberg said the issue was broader than 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 added that the global economy remained exposed because 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 were in agreement on the need to reduce those risks.

“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.

The remarks came during a question-and-answer session following discussions on Pax Silica, a US-led initiative aimed at expanding cooperation with partner countries on advanced technologies, economic security and resilient supply chains.

India and the United States have steadily expanded cooperation in recent years in areas such as semiconductors, critical and emerging technologies, artificial intelligence and resilient supply chains. Both governments have increasingly emphasised reducing dependence on concentrated global manufacturing networks while strengthening trusted technology partnerships.

–IANS

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