Big Boost For India: Significant Advantage for India New Delhi is referred to by the US as a “highly strategic partner” in supply chain security
Big Boost For India: After New Delhi was left out of a newly formed Washington-led project on the silicon supply chain, the US sees India as a “highly strategic potential partner” in initiatives connected to supply chain security and welcomes the chance to interact with the nation.
During a briefing at the Foreign Press Center on Wednesday, Jacob Helberg, the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, informed reporters that the United States and India are “deepening our economic security collaboration” via “ongoing conversations.”
The US unveiled “Pax Silica” this week, a strategic endeavor to create a safe, profitable, and innovative silicon supply chain that includes advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, logistics, and essential minerals and energy inputs.
Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia are all part of the effort. However, India was excluded. All of the Quad nations—Japan, Australia, and the United States—aside from India are involved in the new project.
While acknowledging that there has been “a lot of speculation” over India’s absence from Pax Silica, Helberg dismissed any connection between Delhi’s exclusion and the ongoing hostilities with Washington.
When asked why India was left out of the Pax Silica effort and if political tensions between the two sides were the reason, Helberg said, “So my understanding is that there was a lot of speculation behind India not participating in the Pax Silica Summit.”
“I want to make it clear that our negotiations on supply chain security are entirely apart from and parallel to the discussions between the United States and India over trade arrangements. Those two things are not the same thing. We appreciate the chance to work with India, whom we see as a very strategic prospective partner on supply chain security-related initiatives,” he said.
“We are actively determining ways of actually deepening that collaboration quickly,” Helberg said, adding that he engages in “nearly daily communication” with interlocutors in Delhi.
The India AI Impact Summit, which Helberg said he would be attending in February, “will give us an opportunity to meet in person and hopefully determine some tangible milestones.” He said, “But we do intend to very much deepen our bilateral collaboration between the United States and India on economic security matters.”
The India-AI Impact Summit 2026 will take place in New Delhi on February 19–20, with an emphasis on the values of “People, Planet, and Progress.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement at the France AI Action Summit. This would be the first global AI summit to be held in the Global South.
The Pax Silica effort, according to Helberg, intends to secure the silicon supply chain, which he called the “lifeblood” of cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence, smartphones, and automobiles.
While many nations contribute various components to the global supply chain, he said, “we focused on a segment of the supply chain that was very focused on semiconductor manufacturing.” This was the reasoning for the original pick of countries for Pax Silica.
In this sense, the “nucleus of semiconductor manufacturing” is really made up of Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Netherlands.
“Therefore, we made the decision to begin with a smaller group discussion before moving on to second and third degree down in the supply chain stack,” he said. He emphasized that having a very clear route for nations that are united, dependable, and who offer distinctive contributions to the table in order to enable them to truly join the Pax Silica framework is a crucial component of “our workplan” for 2026.
According to the State Department, the Pax Silica project seeks to safeguard the resources and skills that constitute the basis of artificial intelligence, lessen coercive dependencies, and guarantee that allied countries can produce and implement transformational technologies on a large scale.
In support of US President Donald Trump’s “call for a new era of economic statecraft that produces peace and security for America and its allies through the power of private investment, free enterprise, and economics,” Helberg signed the Pax Silica Declaration last Friday with representatives from Japan, Israel, Australia, Singapore, and the Republic of Korea. It is anticipated that more signatures will join.
The first Pax Silica Summit brought together the eight nations’ equivalents. The State Department said, “Together, these nations are home to the most significant businesses and investors powering the global AI supply chain.”
According to the department, the US is assembling a coalition of nations around the idea of creating a safe, robust, and innovative ecosystem throughout the whole global technology supply chain, from advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and logistics to vital minerals and energy inputs.
In order to harness the economic potential of the new AI era, a new kind of international organization and collaboration called Pax Silica seeks to bring together the nations that are home to the most cutting-edge technology businesses in the globe. Pax Silica aims to create a sustainable economic system that supports a prosperous AI-driven future for all of its member nations, the statement said.