New Delhi: Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, second right, with US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, centre, and others, during an event announcing India joining the Pax Silica initiative, in New Delhi. (PTI Photo)
New Delhi: India formally joined Friday Pax Silica – the US flagship AI and supply chain security initiative that is widely perceived as an antidote to China’s influence over critical technologies. Welcoming India, US ambassador Sergio Gor said that the coalition, which comprises some of Washington’s closest allies and trusted partners as members, was about “whether free societies would control the commanding heights of the global economy” and would define the 21st century economic and technological order.MeitY secretary S Krishnan, US undersecretary for economic growth Jacob Helberg and Gor also signed, apart from the Pax Silica Declaration, a supplementary joint statement that said this partnership signalled a new era in which the world’s oldest and largest democracies stood aligned not only in defence of liberty, but in the purposeful pursuit of prosperity and harmony for their peoples.India’s talent deep enough to rival challengers: GorTogether, the two aspire to build an AI future that serves their citizens, strengthens their economies and societies, and refle-cts their shared values of freedom, openness, and the rule of law,” the statement said.Gor’s remarks were more revealing as he said Pax Silica was a coalition of capabilities that replaced coercive dependencies with a positive sum alliance of trusted industrial bases. “India’s entry into Pax Silica isn’t just symbolic, it’s strategic, it’s essential. India is a nation with deep talent, deep enough to rival challengers,” said Gor, who invited India to join the initiative that now has 11 members, on his first day in office last month.For India, Pax Silica is another significant step forward towards the normalisation of the relationship with the US after both sides finalised the framework for an interim trade agreement this month.According to Gor, India brings strength to the coalition as its engineering depth and critical mineral processing capacity offered critical capabilities to the partnership. “Peace doesn’t come from hoping adversaries will play fair. We all know they won’t. Peace comes through strength. India understands this. India understands strong borders. India understands this part of the world. That strength, that sovereignty, is exactly what Pax Silica amplifies,” said the US ambassador, adding discussions with India were on about building supply chains that would not be held hostage.The Pax Silica Declaration seeks efforts to reduce excessive dependencies and forge new connections with reliable partners and suppliers committed to fair market practices, while acknowledging the importance of addressing non-market practices that undermine innovation and fair competition.Welcoming India to “co-found” the future, Gor also said the initiative was about whether innovation happens in Bengaluru and Silicon Valley or in surveillance states that use technology to monitor and control their people. “We choose freedom. We cho-ose partnership. We choose strength. And today, with India’s entry into Pax Silica, we choose to win,” said Gor.The joint statement prioritised economic security, pro-innovation regulation, stronger physical AI stack and free enterprise saying that the two sides shared the belief that a significant risk facing the free world was not advancement of AI, but the failure to lead it.Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stressed that cooperation under Pax Silica would further deepen engagement on critical technologies and supply chain resilience under the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership.”Technology cooperation remains one of the central pillars of the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. India’s joining the Pax Silica initiative marks a significant step forward in deepening bilateral collaboration in critical and emerging technologies and reinforces shared commitment of both countries to resilient, trusted, and future-ready supply chains,” MEA said. Go to Source
