Outlining a shared vision of “creating secure and trusted telecommunications” and “resilient supply chains” in the ambitious joint statement released in Washington, India has in the clearest terms yet both affirmed the U.S. as a “trusted” long-term partner in its plans for developing critical technologies and also sent a clear signal closing the door to China and its tech companies.
“President Biden and Prime Minister Modi share a vision of creating secure and trusted telecommunications, resilient supply chains, and enabling global digital inclusion. To fulfil this vision, the leaders launched two Joint Task Forces on advanced telecommunications, focused on Open RAN and research and development in 5G/6G technologies,” the joint statement said, adding that public-private cooperation between vendors and operators will be led by India’s Bharat 6G Alliance and the U.S. Next G Alliance.
The two leaders also “endorsed an ambitious vision for 6G networks, including standards cooperation, facilitating access to chipsets for system development, and establishing joint research and development projects.”
Both described the signing of an MoU on the semiconductor supply chain as “a significant step in the coordination of our countries’ semiconductor incentive programs”. They also stressed the need to put in place a “Trusted Network/Trusted Sources” bilateral framework.
“Trusted” has been a recurring and key theme during the ongoing visit. As External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Friday, Mr. Modi’s address to the U.S. Congress had “underlined that the India-U.S. relationship has moved from the ‘hesitations of history’”, which Mr. Modi had referred to in his 2016 address to Congress, “to ‘trusted geographies’”, seven years later.
This has also coincided with a broader debate in the region in assessing risk while rolling out new technologies and in governing and managing data flows, by opening doors to only “trusted” geographies.
Chinese companies such as Huawei, which is offering its 5G technology to many countries in the region, are at the centre of the debate. India has been a major importer of Chinese telecom equipment which has been used in the rollout of 3G and 4G networks, but took a landmark decision in 2020 to leave Chinese companies out of 5G trials.
The downward spiral in relations since 2020, following China’s border transgressions and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) crisis, has subsequently all but closed the door to once thriving tech cooperation between the neighbours, dealing a blow to Chinese companies that had been pushing for a slice of one of the region’s biggest markets.
U.S. politicians who have been campaigning against Chinese tech firms on Friday welcomed the deepening technology cooperation between India and the U.S.
“I commend the announcement of important commercial, technological, and defence deals with India around Prime Minister Modi’s visit this week,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher, Chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which focuses on U.S. economic and security competition with China. “A thriving relationship with the world’s largest democracy,” he said, “is critical to maintaining a stable, open Indo-Pacific.”
