US widens Pax Silica partnership
Washington, June 26
India joined the United States and 34 other countries in backing a new declaration on artificial intelligence as Washington expanded its Pax Silica partnership, a flagship initiative aimed at building trusted technology supply chains among like-minded economies.
A Joint Statement on AI Opportunity, unveiled at the 2026 Pax Silica Summit hosted by the U.S. State Department, commits participating countries to a pro-growth, pro-innovation approach to artificial intelligence while promoting trusted partnerships across critical minerals, semiconductors, energy, advanced manufacturing and AI infrastructure.
The State Department also announced that 10 new partners had signed the Pax Silica Declaration, taking the initiative's membership to 24 countries and economies. The new signatories are Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, the European Union, Germany, Greece, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands and Panama.
India is among the initiative's existing members, alongside Australia, Finland, Israel, Japan, Norway, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sweden, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Taiwan has endorsed the declaration's principles through a separate joint statement on U.S.-Taiwan economic security cooperation.
The AI Opportunity Statement, among other things, seeks to align participating countries behind a regulatory approach that empowers "builders, startups, developers, and the private sector" while strengthening secure global AI supply chains.
The declaration says the signatories support policies that "advance technological innovation and promote investment" and seek to champion "a pro-growth regulatory environment that fosters AI innovation". It also outlines plans to deepen cooperation on trusted semiconductor ecosystems, reliable energy infrastructure, critical minerals and skilled workforces.
The participating countries also pledged to encourage cross-border venture capital flows, joint research and development, and industry partnerships to expand AI computing capacity, next-generation data centres and trusted AI models.
As part of the summit's outcomes, the State Department announced a pilot Artificial Intelligence Assistance Project in Panama. The project aims to develop an AI supply chain credentialing and provenance platform to speed the movement of semiconductors, AI infrastructure, critical minerals and related products through trusted logistics networks.
The department also unveiled Foundry School, a workforce development initiative in partnership with Stanford University. The programme will begin with a seminar series for founders and chief executives in advanced manufacturing, followed by a curriculum that educational institutions across Pax Silica economies can adopt.
Responding to a question from IANS after the summit, Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said India had the potential to become "a comprehensive partner" under the initiative.
"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.
He added that both countries shared concerns over supply chain vulnerabilities and opportunities to build innovation ecosystems, particularly given India's large youth population.
Launched by Helberg in December 2025, Pax Silica is the State Department's flagship initiative on artificial intelligence and supply chain security. It seeks to build economic security partnerships among allies and trusted partners to strengthen supply chains for critical technologies and reduce dependence on vulnerable global networks.
— IANS
Reader Comments
Finally some concrete cooperation on AI supply chains! India's young workforce is perfect for this Foundry School initiative. But I hope the 'pro-growth' regulatory approach doesn't mean no regulation at all - we need ethical AI safeguards too.
Interesting to see India as an existing member alongside major economies. The critical minerals angle is key - India has rare earth reserves that could be crucial for the semiconductor supply chain. This partnership seems more practical than many other initiatives.
While this sounds promising, I'm cautiously optimistic. Similar US-led tech initiatives have often resulted in India playing second fiddle. We need to ensure our startups and researchers get equal access to the benefits, not just the US corporations. The Panama pilot project seems niche - let's see real outcomes first. 🤔
Good to see bipartisan cooperation on AI governance. The 'pro-growth' language is a clear signal to the private sector. India's participation makes perfect sense given its massive engineering talent pool and growing semiconductor ecosystem.
The Foundry School partnership with Stanford is a great opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs. But what about our existing IITs and NITs? Hope this doesn't bypass our domestic educational institutions. We need parallel capacity building - not just foreign programmes.
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