New Delhi: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Washington on Monday where he held the first high-level dialogue on Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) with his counterpart Jake Sullivan. As per a report by PTI quoting officials, academicians and industry experts as saying the talks could be the “next big milestone” in the India-US relationship after the India-US nuclear deal.
While officials on both sides did not reveal the details of the iCET meeting beforehand, they expect the dialogue would lay the foundation for developing a trusted partner ecosystem between the corporate sectors, so that the two countries with public-partner partnership, driven by a culture of startups, can successfully address the challenges posed by authoritarian regimes in the domain of technology and scientific research.
The iCET was first mentioned in a joint statement after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Tokyo on May 22.
Doval’s unusually large delegation includes five secretary level officials and corporate leadership from Indian companies that are doing some cutting-edge research in India, stated the PTI report.
The five secretary-level officials include ISRO Chairman S Somnath, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister, Ajay Kumar Sood; Scientific Advisor to the Raksha Mantri, G Satheesh Reddy; Department of Telecom Secretary K Rajaram and Director General of Defense Research and Development Organisation Samir V Kamat.
Under iCET, the two countries have identified six areas of cooperation which would include co-development and co-production, that would gradually be extended to QUAD, then to NATO, followed by Europe and the rest of the world.
The six areas that have been identified for cooperation as part of iCET are scientific research and development; quantum and artificial intelligence, defense innovation, space, advanced telecom which would include things like 6G and semiconductors.