Inaugural iCET dialogue has potential to take India-US relationship to next level: Experts

Washington, January 31

The first high-level dialogue on the Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his American counterpart Jake Sullivan can be a “strategic enabler” and has the potential to take the India-US ties to the next level, according to experts.

Doval and Sullivan are scheduled to meet at the White House on Tuesday along with their respective high-powered delegations for the inaugural iCET dialogue.

The iCET was first mentioned in a joint statement after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Tokyo in May 2022.

“An initiative like this has the potential to take the US-India relationship to the next level of depth. It can be a strategic enabler. But it will be important to identify, facilitate, track, and deliver on specific priorities,” Tanvi Madan, Director, The India Project, at the Brookings Institute think-tank told PTI.

Under the iCET, the two countries have identified six areas of cooperation which would include co-development and co-production, that would gradually be expanded to Quad, then to NATO, followed by Europe and the rest of the world.

The objective is to provide cutting-edge technologies to the rest of the world which are affordable.

“There is a great deal of build-up and expectation for the iCET meeting. The end goal is to work together to improve our respective abilities to compete with China in creating the technologies that will drive the world in the next century,” Richard M Rossow, Wadhwani Chair in US India Policy Studies at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think-tank told PTI.