US to Use Pax Silica Initiative as Forum to Talk Economic Security Policy, Official Says
The U.S. will use its newly created Pax Silica initiative -- an effort alongside Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the U.K., Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Australia to strengthen the silicon supply chain -- as an opportunity to harmonize economic security tools, said Jacob Helberg, the State Department's undersecretary for economic affairs.
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Speaking to reporters Dec.16, days after the inaugural Pax Silica summit in Washington, Helberg said the group aims to hold "policy discussions on issues related to economic security, as well as policy-level issues related to economic security and our respective policies and making sure that we are aligned as much as we can, given our national circumstances." He added that he recently traveled to Asia and constantly heard from counterparts who "ranked economic security as one of their top concerns."
"So it was very clear that they all felt the pressure from supply chains that were increasingly buckling under new geopolitical realities," he said. The administration is "very excited" about the coalition, whose nine members are home to the "most advanced technology ecosystems in the world."
The State Department's fact sheet on the summit said the group hopes to meet "growing demand from partners to deepen economic and technology cooperation" with the U.S., including in AI, semiconductors and critical minerals. The fact sheet didn't explicitly mention China, but Helberg said "90% of the world’s rare earth minerals are controlled by a single player," which he said all nine nations "view as not being sustainable over the long term."
"The only player with which we’re competing, with which we’re all competing with right now, is not Singapore, Korea, Japan, the U.K. or Australia or Israel," he said. "It’s someone else, and I think everyone understands who that is."
The Pax Silica summit also featured "guest contributions" from Taiwan, the EU and Canada, and Helberg said the group is open to bringing in new members.