India joined the Pax Silica, a US-led global tech strategic alliance, on Friday. The US said that it was “very excited” to have extended an invitation to India to join the initiative.
The move is expected to strengthen bilateral ties between the countries in areas like production of critical minerals and semiconductors and the rising Artificial Intelligence space, to build a secure and resilient global silicon and technology system.
#WATCH | Delhi: Pax Silica Declaration signed between India and the US, in the presence of Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology and Jacob Helberg, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs pic.twitter.com/QyHkM2pebY
— ANI (@ANI) February 20, 2026
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and US Ambassador Sergio Gor signed the Pax Silica declaration, marking New Delhi's entry into the grouping in the presence of other officials.
The move also comes amid the efforts by the two countries to finalise a proposed trade deal.
What is Pax Silica?
The Pax Silica initiative is run by the US Department of State to advance efforts in AI and supply chain security and reduce reliance on non-aligned nations.
It was launched in December 2025, and its member countries currently include Australia, Israel, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
One of the primary objectives of the pact is to reduce coercive dependencies on one country for materials or products to avoid being pressured or manipulated in global trade.
The long-term objective of the pact is to bring together technology-driven economies so that they can fully harness the economic potential of artificial intelligence and benefit from the emerging AI-powered global economy.
Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg told reporters on Friday. "We are very excited to have extended an invitation for India to join' Pax Silica, and I'll be travelling to India in just a couple of weeks for a major signing with the Indian Government."
"India is also home to a large and very large mining and processing operations, which obviously hold great promise to make significant contributions to the supply chain ecosystem. And so there's a lot of terrain in which we will be able to partner with India," he said.
He also said, "India is probably the only other country on Earth to be able to rival China with respect to the breadth and depth of the sheer volume of young, technically trained talent, human talent."
The declaration of the initiative also emphasises the importance of fair market prices.
The initiative has been made as an apparent move to counter China, which alone mines around 70 per cent of key rare earth minerals.
Beijing’s Global Times has described the move as an attempt to decouple China from the the global semiconductor supply chain, which it warned would hike costs. However, China’s response to the group has been limited.
