India Joins Pax Silica Initiative, Signs the Joint Statement on India-U.S. AI Opportunity Partnership

On 20 February 2026, at a special event held on the margins of the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India joined the Pax Silica initiative by becoming a signatory to the Pax Silica Declaration. India also signed a Joint Statement on the "India-U.S. AI Opportunity Partnership" as a bilateral addendum to the Declaration.

2. The documents were signed by Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Shri S. Krishnan; U.S. Ambassador to India, Mr. Sergio Gor; and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, Mr. Jacob Helberg. The signing took place in the presence of Hon'ble Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Director of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, Mr. Michael Kratsios.

3. In his keynote remarks, Minister Vaishnaw highlighted the strong potential for India and the United States to collaborate on supply chain security and emphasized that cooperation under Pax Silica would further deepen engagement on critical technologies and supply chain resilience under the India-U.S. Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership.

4. Ambassador Gor stated that India's entry into Pax Silica is both strategic and essential. He underlined that India brings deep engineering and manufacturing capabilities, expanding capacity in critical mineral processing, and a strong trust factor, offering indispensable strengths to the coalition.

5. Under Secretary Helberg noted that Pax Silica partners are building a new architecture that diffuses intelligence, placing the transformative power of AI in people's hands and unlocking unprecedented possibilities.

6. The signing ceremony was followed by a fireside chat moderated by Under Secretary Helberg. Participants included Secretary Krishnan, Ambassador Gor, CEO of Micron, Mr. Sanjay Mehrotra, and CEO of Tata Electronics, Dr. Randhir Thakur.

7. Pax Silica seeks to build secure, resilient, and innovation-driven supply chains for technologies foundational to the AI era, particularly silicon and critical minerals that underpin semiconductors, advanced computing, and other high-technology systems.

8. Through the Joint Statement on the AI Opportunity Partnership, India and the United States aim to promote pro-innovation regulatory approaches, strengthen the physical AI stack, and advance free enterprise. The partnership envisions empowering AI developers, startups, and ecosystem enablers; exploring joint research and development; facilitating industry partnerships and investments in next-generation data centers; enhancing cooperation on access to compute and advanced processors; and accelerating innovation in AI models and applications.

9. Technology cooperation remains one of the central pillars of the India-U.S. Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. India's joining the Pax Silica initiative marks a significant step forward in deepening bilateral collaboration in critical and emerging technologies and reinforces the shared commitment of both countries to resilient, trusted, and future-ready supply chains.

New Delhi
February 20, 2025