India, US hold 1st meeting of Strategic Trade Dialogue ahead of PM’s visit

Foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra co-chaired the first meeting of the India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue in Washington that reviewed cooperation on export controls for sensitive technologies and work to build diversified and resilient supply chains.

Kwatra’s visit to Washington with an Indian delegation is part of the preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US later this month.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is expected to visit India next week as part of the ongoing preparatory meetings, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

India and the US launched the Strategic Trade Dialogue in March during a visit to New Delhi by US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo.

The dialogue, led on the US side by the under-secretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security of the commerce department, is focused on aligning the export controls of the two countries, enhancing high-technology commerce, and facilitating technology transfers.

The discussions focused on ways in which both governments can “facilitate the development and trade of technologies in critical domains” such as semiconductors, space, telecommunications, quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), defence, and bio-tech, the readout added.

Both sides reviewed relevant bilateral export control regulations in order to build and diversify resilient supply chains for such strategic technologies. They reviewed cooperation in multilateral export control regimes and agreed to share best practices.

The two sides further agreed to enhance awareness among industry, academia, and other stakeholders about export control regimes and acknowledged that the dialogue will be key to enabling co-production, co-development, and enhanced industrial collaborations.

Both sides also agreed to set up a regular monitoring group to review progress in deepening cooperation in high-tech trade and technology partnership.