The first official discussions on the Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies were to be attended by Ajit Doval, the national security advisor for India, who arrived in Washington on Monday morning (iCET). On Tuesday afternoon at the White House, Doval and Jake Sullivan, a representative of the United States, will talk about the iCET.
An person involved with the India-US discussions told ANI that “iCET is the next important milestone in India-US Strategic Partnership with a basic purpose to elevate bilateral collaboration to the next level but specifically in areas of relevance to India.” There is a powerful delegation with the NSA. The delegation includes five prominent individuals: the Principal Scientific Adviser of India, the Chairman of ISRO, the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, the Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications, and the DG, DRDO.
A business delegation is also expected to meet with the US side. iCET was initially referenced in a statement following a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tokyo in 2022, just before the Quad Leaders Summit.
Aligning Washington and New Delhi’s strategic, commercial, and scientific approaches, particularly in the area of technology, would be a key topic of discussion at the White House. “Through iCET, India would convey to the larger sector that India can be a “trusted partner” and that the US and India could debate how to create a trusted partner ecosystem where there is open movement of R&D and other information relevant to to technology specifically,” the official said.
Tuesday’s meeting needs to be goal-oriented with a clear understanding of doable action items ANI has learned. According to experts, there is hope that India and the US would be able to identify their top areas of collaboration.
Although the Biden administration views technology development with regard to China as a zero-sum battle that the US cannot lose, iCET makes no specific mention of China. The iCET initiative would be a good starting point. As China advances technologically so quickly and as one observes an aggressive penetration of the Chinese side of the world, the world will come to view it as a fait accompli if it is not stopped and matched by something equally aggressive. Therefore, if one has to reverse that progress, everyone will has to work together,” (another official told ANI)
