India Joins US-Led PAX Silica; Signs Major AI and Critical Minerals Pact

3 min readUpdated: Feb 20, 2026 01:03 PM IST

India and the United States signed the Pax Silica declaration Friday in a major step toward strengthening their technology partnership, and bringing New Delhi into the US-led initiative aimed at securing AI and critical technology supply chains.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO

US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg is in New Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was India’s representative at the signing ceremony.

The agreement follows last month’s announcement by US Ambassador Sergio Gor that India would be invited to join the initiative. India’s inclusion in Pax Silica is an important step towards cementing the partnership in the new frontiers of technology, including AI and semiconductors. It also comes with significant investment commitments from US companies to support India’s AI infrastructure.

Overall, this is expected to power India’s late start and growth in the semiconductor mission and the AI race.

Sources said the presence of top American CEOs and founders at the ongoing India AI Impact Summit 2026, including Sundar Pichai and Sam Altman, is an indication of Delhi’s value in the overall AI and semiconductor landscape.

Cornering China

According to the US State Department, Pax Silica aims to bring “friendly and trusted” countries together to ensure that key technologies are safe, reliable, and not controlled by hostile actors.

This strategic initiative, seen as a counter to China’s grip on the global manufacturing supply chain, was launched on December 12, 2025, to “reduce coercive dependencies” and build a “secure, prosperous, and innovation-driven silicon supply chain” – from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and logistics.

Story continues below this ad

At the time of the launch, the US, to the surprise of many here, left India out of the initiative, mentioning “allies” such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. This led to concerns that uncertainty around the trade deal was creating broader differences between the two countries.

Ever since Gor’s arrival in India, there has been considerable dialling down of tensions between the two countries, and the framework for the India-US trade deal has been agreed upon.

The initiative, according to the US State Department, will also entail protecting sensitive technologies and critical infrastructure from undue access or control by countries of concern and building trusted technology ecosystems, including Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems, fibre-optic cables, data centres, foundational models and applications.

India has had concerns over China’s involvement in its critical infrastructure, such as telecom.

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. … Read More

Source link