NEW DELHI: India on Friday signed a declaration to join a US-led strategic alliance, known as 'Pax Silica', aimed at strengthening resilient supply chains for critical minerals and artificial intelligence (AI).
India signed the declaration at a ceremony held on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit, attended by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, and Washington's Ambassador to New Delhi Sergio Gor.
The move comes amid efforts by the two sides to finalise the proposed trade deal and move forward on several other initiatives to solidify bilateral ties after a spell of severe strain in relations.
The Pax Silica initiative was launched in December last year to build a secure, resilient and innovation-driven supply chain for critical minerals and artificial intelligence.
Following the ceremony, Vaishnaw said the Pax Silica coalition will greatly benefit India’s electronics and semiconductor industry.
“Already, 10 plants are in the process of being established in India, and very soon the first semiconductor plant will start commercial production. In that framework, in India, semiconductor design, chip design — today the most advanced 2-nanometre chips — are being designed in India. A complete ecosystem is emerging in India, and for that, Pax Silica will be of great importance and will benefit the youth of India,” he said.
Helberg said that “we signed the Pax Silica Declaration, a document that’s not merely an agreement on paper, but a roadmap for a shared future.”
“Pax Silica is a declaration that the future belongs to those who build, and when free people join forces, we do not wait for the future to be given to us,” the US Under Secretary of State said.
“…As we signed the Pax Silica Declaration, we say no to weaponised dependency, and we say no to blackmail. And together, we say that economic security is national security. But we must be precise about what that word means,” he added.
He further said that “we are forging a supply chain that is the foundation for prosperity. We are building a new architecture that diffuses intelligence, placing the awesome power of AI into the palm of our people’s hands and unleashing a wave of unprecedented possibility. From the mines to the models, we are securing the full stack of the future — the minerals deep in the earth, the silicon wafers in our labs and fabs, and the intelligence that will unleash human potential.”
Meanwhile, Gor said Pax Silica is a “coalition of capabilities” that replaces coercive dependencies with a positive-sum alliance of trusted industrial bases. He added that from trade tied to Pax Silica to defence cooperation, the potential for the two nations to work together is truly “limitless”.
“We welcome India joining to co-found the future that Pax Silica is about — free society, whether free societies will control the commanding heights of the global economy. It’s about whether innovation happens in Bangalore and Silicon Valley or in surveillance states that use technology to monitor and control their people,” he said.
The US ambassador framed India’s entry into Pax Silica as the final piece of a global puzzle intended to keep the “commanding heights” of technology in the hands of free nations.
“We choose freedom, we choose partnership. We choose strength. And today, with India’s entry into Pax Silica, we choose to win,” he said.
Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron Technology, said the Pax Silica initiative will bring technological collaboration between the US and India closer.
The Pax Silica Summit was held in Washington on December 12 last year, where partner nations signed the Pax Silica declaration.
The declaration outlines a shared goal to deepen economic and technological cooperation. It covers the full supply chain — from raw materials to semiconductors and AI systems — and focuses on shared growth and security. One of the main goals of Pax Silica is to build a strong and long-lasting economic framework that supports AI-driven growth across member countries.
The member nations of Pax Silica included Australia, Greece, Israel, Japan, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
Pax Silica will be a group of nations that believe technology should empower free people and free markets. India’s entry into Pax Silica is not just symbolic — it is strategic and essential. India is a nation with deep talent, capable of rivaling challengers. India’s engineering strength offers critical capabilities for this vital coalition.