The Trump administration’s new strategic initiative, Pax Silica, which aims to challenge China’s dominance in critical minerals and emerging technologies, does not include India. This comes even as Washington and New Delhi remain engaged in high-level trade talks, with as many as five rounds of technical negotiations already completed.
The US-led initiative names Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Israel as founding members.
Why Pax Silica?
In a statement, the US Department of State said Pax Silica will advance 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.”
The West’s diversification efforts have accelerated since China imposed restrictions on rare earth magnets, disrupting global supply chains. The shift has, meanwhile, offered India its strongest opportunity yet to move from a “China+1” option to becoming a preferred destination for global capacity expansion.
Pax Silica brings together key AI and semiconductor powers: US
The inaugural Pax Silica Summit will feature Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. “Together, these countries are home to the most important companies and investors powering the global AI supply chain,” the State Department said.
According to the US government, Pax Silica represents a new type of international partnership—one that seeks to unite countries hosting the world’s most advanced technology companies to unlock the economic potential of the AI era. “This is the first time countries are organizing around compute, silicon, minerals, and energy as shared strategic assets,” the statement said.
Rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, Pax Silica aims to reduce coercive dependencies, safeguard materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence, and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale, the US government said. The grouping will focus on securing strategic layers—or “stacks”—of the global technology supply chain, including software applications and platforms, it added.
Countries have affirmed a shared commitment to pursue projects addressing vulnerabilities and opportunities across priority areas such as critical minerals, semiconductor design, fabrication, and packaging, logistics and transportation, compute, and energy grids and power generation, the State Department noted.
Summit participants will discuss multi-layered partnerships to strengthen supply chain security, mitigate coercive dependencies and single points of failure, and promote trusted technology ecosystems. They will also explore joint flagship projects across technology stacks, including connectivity and data infrastructure, compute and semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, logistics, mineral refining and processing, and energy, the statement added.