The Congress on Saturday criticised the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, stating that it was “not very surprising” that India was excluded from a new United States-led initiative named Pax Silica, which is aimed at securing global silicon and high-technology supply chains.
“Undoubtedly it would have been to our advantage” if India had been one of the countries part of the initiative, said party leader Jairam Ramesh on social media.
The US Department of State has described Pax Silica as a “strategic initiative to build a secure, prosperous, and innovation driven silicon supply chain – from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and logistics”.
The countries participating in the inaugural Pax Silica Summit are Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
Ramesh claimed that India was not included in the initiative “given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May”.
He was referring to United States President Donald Trump repeatedly claiming credit for brokering the ceasefire between India and Pakistan following the four-day conflict in May.
Rubio had on May 10 claimed that New Delhi and Islamabad had agreed to “start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site”.
New Delhi has rejected the claims and maintained that the ceasefire was not the result of mediation.
Bilateral ties between New Delhi and Washington further deteriorated in August after President Donald Trump doubled the tariffs on goods imported from India to 50% for purchasing Russian oil amid the war in Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly alleged that India’s imports were fuelling Russia’s war on Ukraine.
After the “reciprocal” levies were announced, New Delhi had said it was “extremely unfortunate” that the US had chosen to impose additional tariffs on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.
On Saturday, Ramesh stated that the news of India not being part of the Pax Silica came a day after “the prime minister had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend”.
Modi on Thursday said that he had spoken with Trump on the phone and “reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments”.
The prime minister described his conversation with Trump as "warm and engaging" and said the two countries would continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity.
Modi and Trump have spoken three times since Trump doubled tariffs on imports from India.
After Modi’s statement on Thursday, Union minister Piyush Goyal said that the US should sign the free trade agreement with India if it is happy with the offers that New Delhi has made.
Goyal was responding to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s statement on Tuesday that Washington had received the “best ever” offer from India amid trade negotiations.
The Union minister, however, did not provide details on India’s offer to the US or the potential deadline for signing the agreement.
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