India likely to join US-led strategic alliance Pax Silica today

India set to join Pax Silica

India is likely to formally join Pax Silica, the US-led strategic alliance which is focused on strengthening resilient supply chains for critical minerals and advancing artificial intelligence capabilities.

The development comes as both sides work to finalise the proposed trade agreement and move ahead on several other initiatives aimed at strengthening bilateral ties following a period of significant strain over Trump tariffs.

The Pax Silica Declaration will be formally signed by India and US on Friday morning, after which US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor is scheduled to hold discussions with US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg.

In January, soon after his arrival in New Delhi, Gor had announced that India would be invited to join Pax Silica.

So far, nine nations have signed on for the Pax Silica initiative, including Australia, Greece, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Singapore, UK and UAE. While other countries joined in December itself, after the intiative was launched, the UAE joined last month.

The Pax Silica Summit was held in Washington on December 12 where partner nations signed the Pax Silica declaration. The strategic initiative is widely viewed as an effort to counter China's dominance over global manufacturing supply chains. It aims to 'reduce coercive dependencies' and foster a 'secure, prosperous, and innovation-driven silicon supply chain' — spanning critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and logistics.

One of the key pillars of Pax Silica was to establish a durable economic order to drive AI-powered prosperity across partner nations. "We recognise that a reliable supply chain is indispensable to our mutual economic security," according to the Pax Silica declaration.

"We also recognize that artificial intelligence represents a transformative force for our long-term prosperity and that trustworthy systems are essential to safeguarding our mutual security and prosperity," it said.