iCET to give orbital jump to strategic relations between India-US: NSA Ajit Doval

The India-US Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) is going to emerge as one of the very important pillars in the India-US bilateral strategic partnership, said Shri Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor, Government of India. Shri Doval was addressing the Roundtable on Advancing India-US iCET organized by CII in New Delhi on 13 June. He said that significant progress has been made in various areas, while in some, the two nations have started moving in the right direction.

“We have been able to kickstart the Indo-US Quantum Coordination Mechanism, signed an MoU on semi-conductors, the public private dialogue on telecom engaging stakeholders from the government, Industry and academia to further open collaboration in Open RAN, 5G and 6G has been kickstarted, detailed dialogue on biotech is being held, important exchanges on AI have taken place, and there is positive momentum under the defence and space pillars,” he said. Shri Doval added that he is optimistic that more specific and tangible results will be achieved in the near future.

Most importantly, we have established a strategic trade dialogue, he said, noting that it will serve as a platform to address regulatory barriers, and issues relating to exports control. The NSA said that the interest shown by industry, businesses, scientists, research scholars, and institutions in iCET is encouraging and confidence building. “iCET is not a government-to-government arrangement alone, but a collaborative initiative of industry, academia, research bodies and think tanks, all making a common endeavour to see India and US in a higher orbit, an orbital jump to our strategic relations, where we are able to build technology capabilities and exploit opportunities,” he noted.

Hon’ble Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, United States of America said that iCET is more than just tech, it is about people-to-people relationships, building the skills of our populations, building trust and confidence between societies and governments, and deepening our defence cooperation, in ways that will help us both strategically and economically. He noted that the industry is providing the power and propulsion for this initiative.

Mr Sullivan highlighted that one of the key focuses of the initiative is to remove barriers to collaboration on both sides to maximize the full potential of bilateral cooperation. He said that leading firms are looking to make investments in both directions. “The US and India are poised to lead in clean energy transformation, shore up and diversify global semi-conductor supply chains and supply chains in other critical goods, and lead the revolution in AI, advanced computing, biotech and quantum,” he added.

H.E. Mr Eric Garcetti, Ambassador of United States of America to India said that the foundation between India and the US is strong. India and the US may be the co-authors of this next phase that the world faces, he added. For translating the vision of iCET into human terms, he said that we need to have the technology that connects, protects, and heals people, which is what technology is all about.

Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII said that the launch of iCET demonstrates the two nations’ strong commitment to strengthening the bilateral relationship. He suggested the establishment of a core group for implementation of iCET under CII that will work with US counterparts.

13 June 2023

New Delhi