The India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue (IUSSTD) was officially launched before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US. According to the Indian embassy in the US, the discussions were centred on how to promote the development and commerce of important technologies such as semiconductors, space, communications, quantum, artificial intelligence, defence, and biotechnology.
The dialogue is seen as a crucial tool for advancing the strategic trade and technology partnerships under the India-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET). In their discussions, India and the US decided to create a regular monitoring panel that will assess the development of their bilateral high-tech trade and technology alliance.
Foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra travelled to the US for the talks. The engagement also took place ahead of Track 1. 5 dialogue on India–US Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) that will be held and will be addressed by NSA Ajit Doval and his counterpart Jake Sullivan. According to the Indian readout, both sides reviewed the relevant bilateral export control regulations with the objective of building and diversifying resilient supply chains for these strategic technologies.
The US delegation was co-headed by Victoria Nuland, under secretary of state for political affairs in the US department of state, and Alan Estevez, under secretary for industry and security in the US department of commerce. Foreign secretary Kwatra led the mission representing India.
“They reviewed ongoing cooperation in multilateral export control regimes and agreed to share best practices. Both sides agreed to enhance awareness among the industry, academia and other stakeholders about the export control regimes. . . ,” said the Indian government.