In a significant move, India and the US on Thursday decided to launch a strategic trade dialogue to address export controls, explore ways of enhancing high technology commerce, and facilitate technology transfers.
The decision to launch the new framework of dialogue was taken at a meeting between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and visiting US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
“The external affairs minister and secretary Raimondo agreed to launch an India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue, led by Foreign Secretary from Ministry of External Affairs of India and Under Secretary, Bureau of Industry and Security in US Department of Commerce,” the MEA said.
“The Strategic Trade Dialogue will address export controls, explore ways of enhancing high technology commerce, and facilitate technology transfer between the two countries,” it said.
The MEA said Jaishankar and Raimondo had a productive discussion about the India-US strategic partnership and ongoing efforts to deepen the economic and commercial engagement between the two countries, including through the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). “They also concurred on the need for increased bilateral strategic and high technology trade given the shared priorities of both countries in building resilient and trusted global supply chains,” the MEA said in a statement.
Further talking about her meeting with External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, the Secretary mentioned that they agreed to launch an India-US strategic trade dialogue led by the Foreign Secretary from the Ministry of External Affairs of India and Under Secretary, Bureau of Industry and Security in US Department of commerce.
“So this is exciting where we’re going to deepen our engagement with India to specifically around the area of aligning our export controls and sharing information with one another”, said the Secretary.
She also said they would like to see India playing a more significant role in the electronic supply chain, adding that an MOU will be signed around semiconductors in this trip.
“We would like to see India achieves its aspirations to play a larger role in the electronic supply chain. And to that end, the MOU memorandum of understanding that I am signing on this trip around semiconductors is designed to help achieve that goal,” Raimondo said.
The top US official added, “Semiconductors are another great example of our shared priorities. We’ve had discussions about that all day today, both US and India are implementing semiconductor incentive programs and we discussed how we could coordinate those investments which are in our interests and ensure the best possible outcome for both of our countries.”
