India and the United States have agreed to set up a monitoring group to review progress in deepening cooperation in the bilateral high-tech trade and technology partnership.

The decision was taken at the inaugural meeting of India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue (IUSSTD) in Washington D.C led by Foreign Secretary, Vinay Mohan Kwatra and  co-led by Alan Estevez, Under Secretary for Industry and Security in the US Department of Commerce and Victoria Nuland, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in the US Department of State on Tuesday.

The two sides reviewed ongoing cooperation in multilateral export control regimes and agreed to share best practices, per a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.

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“IUSSTD focused on ways in which both governments can facilitate the development and trade of technologies in critical domains such as semiconductors, space, telecom, quantum, AI, defence, bio-tech and others,” the statement noted.

Both sides agreed to enhance awareness among the industry, academia and other stakeholders about the export control regimes through workshops and other activities, the release said. 

Dialogue is key

The two sides also reviewed the relevant bilateral export control regulations with the objective of building and diversifying resilient supply chains for these strategic technologies.

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They acknowledged that the dialogue would be instrumental to enabling co-production, co-development and enhanced industrial collaborations in critical technologies.

Dialogue is a key mechanism to take forward the strategic technology and trade collaborations envisaged under the India-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET). 

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