India, US to form monitoring group to review trade cooperation

New Delhi: India and the US have decided to set up a regular monitoring group which will review progress in deepening cooperation in the bilateral high-tech trade and technology partnership between the two nations.

This was decided during the inaugural meeting of India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue (IUSSTD), which was held in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.

The Indian delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, while the US delegation was co-led by Alan Estevez, the Under Secretary for Industry and Security, and Victoria Nuland, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

The dialogue is a key mechanism to take forward the strategic technology and trade collaborations envisaged under the India-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).

IUSSTD focussed on ways in which both governments can facilitate the development and trade of technologies in critical domains such as semiconductors, space, telecom, quantum, Artificial Intelligence, defence, bio-tech and others.

Both sides reviewed the relevant bilateral export control regulations with the objective of building and diversifying resilient supply chains for these strategic technologies.

They reviewed ongoing cooperation in multilateral export control regimes and agreed to share best practices.

The two sides agreed to enhance awareness among the industry, academia and other stakeholders about the export control regimes through workshops and other activities.

They acknowledged that the dialogue would be instrumental to enabling co-production, co-development and enhanced industrial collaborations in critical technologies.

The co-chairs agreed to continue the dialogue with the objective of strengthening the India-US comprehensive global strategic partnership.
IANS