Washington, Feb 25 (IANS) The United States is positioning India as a strategic pillar in its effort to loosen China’s dominance over rare earth minerals and advanced technology supply chains, a top State Department official told lawmakers during a high-stakes Congressional hearing on economic security.
Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment Jacob Helberg said India had formally joined the US-led “Pax Silica” coalition, an initiative aimed at securing critical mineral, semiconductor, and artificial intelligence supply chains among allied nations.
“Just last week we welcomed India into the fold,” Helberg said, describing Pax Silica as “an economic security coalition for the AI century designed to secure the supply chain infrastructure that underlies national power.”
Helberg told lawmakers that control over the industrial foundations of AI would determine global leadership in the decades ahead.
“The nation that controls the industrial foundations of artificial intelligence will lead this century. The nation that doesn’t will depend on those who do,” he said.
He singled out India’s strategic advantages, arguing that New Delhi brings both talent and refining capacity to the table.
“India is probably the only country in the world that rivals China in terms of the depth of its human capital and talent,” Helberg said. “It’s also the world’s third-largest mineral refiner.”
China currently processes “somewhere in the neighbourhood of 90 per cent of the world’s refining capacity,” he said, calling the concentration of supply chains in one country a “fundamental challenge” the US is racing to address.
The strategy, he told the committee, involves expanding refining capacity in allied countries through “brownfield projects” and deploying private capital into mining and mineral processing ventures in countries such as India, Australia, and South Korea.
Helberg said Washington’s approach combines economic coordination, export controls, and supply chain diversification to counter what he described as China’s use of trade and industrial policy as strategic tools.
“China has not made a secret of its plans and intentions to decouple from us,” he said. “The question is, are we comfortable staying dependent on them while they actively try to decouple from us?”
The hearing exposed sharp partisan divisions over US tariff policy, but there was broad bipartisan concern over China’s dominance in critical minerals and advanced manufacturing.
Helberg said 55 countries recently participated in a US-led critical minerals ministerial to explore alternatives to Chinese-controlled supply chains. He also referred to a recent US-India joint statement on trade that includes “historic purchases by India from the US on energy” and increased cross-border investment.
“I’m incredibly confident in the trajectory of the US-Indian relationship,” he said. “It’s incredibly strong.”
For India, the remarks signal growing recognition in Washington of its role in shaping the next phase of global technology competition. The United States and India have in recent years deepened cooperation through initiatives on critical and emerging technologies and within frameworks such as the Quad, alongside Japan and Australia.
–IANS
lkj/rs