India joined a U.S.-led inaugural to fortify exertion practice among strategical allies successful a determination Friday that underscores the nations’ warming ties aft a little strain implicit New Delhi’s unabated acquisition of discounted Russian oil
ByRAJESH ROY Associated Press
February 20, 2026, 2:09 AM
NEW DELHI -- India joined a U.S.-led inaugural to fortify exertion practice among strategical allies successful a determination Friday that underscores the nations' warming ties aft a little strain implicit New Delhi’s unabated acquisition of discounted Russian oil.
The determination aligns India intimately with Washington’s efforts to physique unafraid proviso chains for semiconductors, precocious manufacturing and captious technologies astatine a clip geopolitical contention with China is intensifying. It besides signals a reset successful relations pursuing friction implicit vigor commercialized and tariffs.
Nations that person joined the Pax Silica model see Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and Israel.
"Pax Silica volition beryllium a radical of nations that judge exertion should empower escaped radical and escaped markets. India’s introduction into Pax Silica isn’t conscionable symbolic. Its strategic, its essential,” U.S. Ambassador Sergio Gor said successful a code preceding the statement signing.
Pax Silica is aimed astatine strengthening practice among spouse countries connected semiconductor design, fabrication, probe and proviso concatenation resilience. The inaugural seeks to trim dependence connected China-dominated manufacturing hubs portion promoting trusted accumulation networks crossed democracies and strategical allies.
The improvement astatine the artificial quality acme successful New Delhi comes weeks aft India and the U.S. reached an interim commercialized model to trim tariffs and assistance greater entree to each other’s markets, easing tensions that had threatened to dilatory bilateral momentum.
President Donald Trump announced earlier this period that the U.S. would little reciprocal import tariffs connected India from 25% to 18% and besides region the further 25% levy imposed earlier for buying Russian crude aft Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to halt it.
India had ramped up Russian lipid imports aft Moscow’s penetration of Ukraine successful 2022, drafting disapproval from occidental partners adjacent arsenic New Delhi defended the purchases arsenic indispensable to negociate ostentation and support its consumers.
India’s introduction into Pax Silica, combined with commercialized concessions, marks a strategical convergence that extends beyond commerce into semipermanent exertion and information cooperation, reinforcing India’s relation arsenic a cardinal U.S. spouse successful the Indo-Pacific.
“From the commercialized woody to Pax Silica to defence cooperation, the imaginable for our 2 nations to enactment unneurotic is genuinely limitless,” Gor said.










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