20 February,2026 01:26 PM IST | New Delhi | mid-day online correspondent
Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, US Under Secretary Jacob Helberg and Ambassador Sergio Gor were present during the agreement. Pic/X
India on Friday joined the United States (US)-led strategic alliance Pax Silica, an initiative aimed at building a secure and resilient supply chain for critical minerals and artificial intelligence.
The agreement to join the coalition was formalised at a ceremony held on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit in the national capital, news agency PTI reported. Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (IT) Ashwini Vaishnaw, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jacob Helberg and US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor were among those present.
India's decision to enter the coalition comes at a time when New Delhi and Washington are working to conclude a proposed trade agreement and advance several initiatives to strengthen bilateral ties after a period of strain.
"From the trade deal to Pax Silica to defence cooperation, the potential for our two nations to work together is truly limitless," Gor said.
He described India's participation as not merely symbolic but a strategic step that would further strengthen the trajectory of bilateral relations.
Highlighting India's strengths, Gor said the country possesses deep engineering talent capable of meeting global challenges. He noted that India has also made significant progress in developing critical mineral processing capacity, an area in which the US is closely engaged. He suggested that trusted AI technologies could be shared with India under the Pax Silica framework.
Helberg welcomed India's entry into the alliance and characterised Pax Silica as an initiative aimed at countering coercion and blackmail in global supply chains - an apparent reference to China.
"We watch as our friends and allies face daily threats of economic coercion and blackmail. They are forced to choose between their sovereignty and their prosperity. We find ourselves grappling with a global supply chain that is massively over-concentrated," he said.
"So today, as we sign 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.
Launched in December, Pax Silica seeks to create a secure, resilient and innovation-driven supply chain ecosystem spanning critical minerals, semiconductors and AI infrastructure. The Pax Silica Summit was held in Washington on December 12, where partner countries signed the declaration.
The declaration outlines a shared vision of deep economic and technological cooperation across the supply chain - from raw material extraction to semiconductor manufacturing and AI systems - with a focus on mutual prosperity and security.
Current members of Pax Silica include Australia, Greece, Israel, Japan, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
Last month, Ambassador Gor had announced an invitation to India to join the alliance.
A central pillar of Pax Silica is the creation of a durable economic framework to drive AI-powered growth across partner nations. "We recognise that a reliable supply chain is indispensable to our mutual economic security," the declaration states.
It further underlines that artificial intelligence represents a transformative force for long-term prosperity and that trustworthy systems are critical to safeguarding shared security and growth.
The declaration adds that economic value and expansion will flow across every layer of the global AI supply chain, creating unprecedented demand for energy, critical minerals, manufacturing, advanced hardware, infrastructure and entirely new markets.
(With PTI inputs)
