On June 6, 2023, at the inaugural India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue (IUSSTD) meeting held in Washington DC, the Foreign Secretary of India, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, co-chaired the first meeting of the India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue with Alan Estevez, the under-secretary for Industry and Security of the Commerce Department, along with Ambassador Victoria Nuland, the under-secretary of state for political affairs in the state department.
The dialogue is focused on the alignment of export controls of the two countries, enhancing high-technology commerce and facilitating technology transfer.
India and the US launched the Strategic Trade Dialogue in March 2023 during a visit to New Delhi by American Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
After the inaugural meeting on June 6, 2023, a readout from the Indian side said, “The dialogue is a key mechanism to take forward strategic technology and trade collaborations envisaged under the India-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET).”
The discussions focused on the ways in which governments of both nations can facilitate the development of trade of technologies in critical domains such as semiconductors, space, defence, Artificial Intelligence (AI), biotech, and quantum computing, 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 the multilateral export control regimes and agreed to share best practices.
The two sides further agreed to enhance the awareness among industry, academia, and other stakeholders about export control regimes. They acknowledged that the dialogue would be key to enabling co-production, co-development and enhanced industrial collaborations.
Additionally, America and India agreed to set up a regular monitoring group to review progress in deepening cooperation in a high-trade technology partnership.
The people cited above said that Sullivan’s upcoming two-day visit, expected to begin on June 13, 2023, will be an opportunity to review work done by the two countries through iCET in Washington in January to hasten cooperation in critical and emerging technologies.
Kwatra and his delegation’s visit to the US is part of preparations for PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the US later this month. The 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 June 7, 2023. Last month, PK Mishra travelled to the US and met with Victoria Nuland.
Modi is expected to begin his trip with the US on June 21, 2023, by participating in celebrations to mark International Yoga Day. The formal state visit will commence on June 22, 2023, including a ceremonial welcome at the White House, an address to a joint session of the US Congress, and a state banquet to be hosted by President Joe Biden from the United States of America.
After the inaugural meeting concluded, Victoria Nuland tweeted-“Thank You, Indian Foreign Secretary Kwatra, and the delegation for a very productive first India-US Strategic Dialogue. Together we will grow our economies and jobs through increased bilateral trade and better high-tech collaboration.”
The Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, hosted and met other QUAD member counterparts. He tweeted, “ A bipartisan handshake of the US Congress with QUAD. Delighted to host QUAD Ambassadors Kevin Rudd AC, Amb Tomita, Japan’s embassy DC and the White House leadership and members from the Foreign Affairs Committee Dems, Rep Gregory Meeks, Young Kim Ami Bera, Rep Mike Waltz, and French Hill.”
IUSSTD is a key mechanism to take forward strategic trade collaborations envisaged under India-US Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies.
