A new US-led strategic initiative, Pax Silica, which aims to build a secure supply chain ranging from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing and semiconductors, does not include India. This comes as the India-US trade deal continues to be elusive, despite several high-level talks and as many as five rounds of technical negotiations. However, New Delhi has been vying for opportunities during the ongoing global supply chain realignment as the US and European companies have been looking to diversify away from China.
West’s diversification push has gathered pace, especially after China imposed restrictions on rare earth magnets, disrupting supply chains globally. A US Department of State statement said that the inaugural Pax Silica Summit convenes counterparts from Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia.
“Together, these countries are home to the most important companies and investors powering the global AI supply chain,” the statement read. The US government said that Pax Silica is a US-led strategic initiative to build a “secure, prosperous, and innovation-driven silicon supply chain”—from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and logistics.
“Rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, Pax Silica aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence, and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale. Countries will partner on securing strategic stacks of the global technology supply chain, including, but not limited to, software applications and platforms. ,” the US government said.
“Countries affirmed a shared commitment to pursue projects to jointly address AI supply chain opportunities and vulnerabilities in priority critical minerals. semiconductor design, fabrication, and packaging, logistics and transportation, compute, and energy grids and power generation,” the State Department said. The measures under Pax Silica include pursuing new joint ventures and strategic co-investment opportunities, protecting sensitive technologies and critical infrastructure from undue access or control by countries of concern and building trusted technology ecosystems, including ICT systems, fibre-optic cables, data centres, foundational models and applications.
Story continues below this ad “The initiative responds to growing demand from partners to deepen economic and technology cooperation with the United States and understanding that AI represents a transformative force for our long-term prosperity. Recognition that trustworthy systems are essential for safeguarding our mutual security and prosperity,” the US State Department said. In an interview in October, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent had framed China’s new export controls on critical minerals as “China versus the rest of the world”, stating that the US is pushing back firmly and expects strong support from “Europe, India and other Asian democracies”.
Experts have said China’s dominance in the global critical minerals market, which has created a wide gap in price point between Chinese products and those produced elsewhere, is a shared challenge. While this could help India attract American investments, it could also expose it to coercion by China over its deepening involvement with the US.