US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on an official visit to New Delhi from June 13 to 14 met the National Security Adviser of India Ajit Doval on Tuesday and discussed regional and global issues of mutual relevance, a press note issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) informed.

US National Security Advisor Sullivan arrived here on Tuesday on a two-day visit for talks with Doval, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and other senior Indian officials, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington.

The two leaders later unveiled an ambitious roadmap for Indo-US collaboration in seven specific high-technology areas, including semiconductors, next-generation telecommunication, artificial intelligence, and defense at the second Track-1.5 dialogue for the industry chamber CII's initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).

According to a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs, the US Chamber of Commerce hosted the first iteration of this debate on January 30 in Washington, DC.

The US NSA addressed the crowd in Delhi and said that US President Joe Biden is ecstatic to see what is happening here and to observe how things develop.

"Both our nations are fundamentally on the trajectory of growth and strength," said Sullivan during his speech at the event.

"Together, we have deep wells of talents, capital, innovations and expertise and these are going to be put to good use," he added.

NSA Doval said "there’s something unique about iCET" that he has realised after concluding the first round of talks with his American counterpart Jake Sullivan.

“iCET is not a government-to-government arrangement… it is about collaboration and about exploiting the opportunity of what lies ahead (in US-India ties),” Doval said addressing the Indian and American industries under the aegis of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), jointly with Sullivan.

''We have been able to kickstart the Indo-US quantum coordination mechanism, we signed an MoU on semiconductors, the public-private dialogue on telecom engaging stakeholders from the government, industry and academia to further open collaboration in open RAN, 5G and 6G,'' Doval said.

Most importantly, a strategic trade dialogue has been established, he said, noting that it will serve as a platform to address regulatory barriers and issues relating to exports control.

Leading academic and business figures from both nations attended the conversation, and the NSAs spoke to the attendees.

During the visit, NSA Sullivan also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Reviewed progress under India-US Initiative on Critical & Emerging Technologies (iCET) and other issues of bilateral cooperation. Look forward to meeting US President Joe Biden during my upcoming state visit to the US," tweeted PM Modi.

The iCET is expected to forge closer linkages between the government, academia, and industry of the two countries in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 5G and 6G, biotech, space, and semiconductors.

Image source: The Print