Congress MP and General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said that given the sharp downturn in Trump–Modi ties since May 10, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. File
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
The Congress on Saturday (December 13, 2025) targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over India’s exclusion from a new U.S.-led strategic initiative aimed at securing global silicon and high-technology supply chains, saying it would have been in the country’s interest to be part of the grouping.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said India’s absence from the initiative, called Pax Silica, was not surprising in view of what he described as a “sharp downturn” in ties between Prime Minister Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump in recent months.
Taking a swipe at the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramesh linked the development to Mr. Modi’s recent social media post describing his phone conversation with Mr.Trump as “warm and engaging”.
In a post on X, Mr. Ramesh said reports suggest that the U.S. has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative designed to reduce Chinese dominance in high-tech supply chains. He noted that the name Pax Silica is clearly intended as a counter to Pax Sinica. According to the Congress, the countries included so far are the United States, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
“Given the sharp downturn in Trump–Modi ties since May 10, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group,” Mr. Ramesh said, adding that the news came soon after the Prime Minister publicly highlighted his conversation with his “once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC ”.
The U.S. State Department has described Pax Silica as a strategic initiative rooted in deep cooperation among trusted partners to build a secure, resilient and innovation-driven silicon supply chain. The initiative aims to reduce coercive dependencies, safeguard materials and capabilities critical to artificial intelligence, and enable aligned nations to develop and deploy advanced technologies at scale.
Notably, while other Quad members — the U.S., Japan and Australia — are part of the initiative, India is not yet part of the latest U.S. initiative.
Published – December 13, 2025 04:37 pm IST
