New Delhi: India, the US and South Korea will launch an informal trilateral technology dialogue next year, the White House announced Friday. This will be part of the Next Generation Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET) Dialogue — a framework for cooperation between Washington and Seoul on various domains of innovation.
The US and South Korea aim to “hold National Security Council and National Security Office-led consultations with like-minded partners on critical and emerging technologies, including through launching an informal trilateral technology dialogue with India in the first quarter of 2024″, read the White House statement.
Emerging technologies and critical minerals — vital for India’s economic development and national security — are among the key areas of collaboration between New Delhi and Washington.
India joined the US-led Mineral Security Partnership in June, along with Australia, South Korea, France and others, to secure the supply chains of these minerals. This is significant for India, given its ambition to develop the electric vehicle (EV) industry and reduce its reliance on China for critical minerals.
The Indian government has set a target of increasing EVs’ share in the country’s vehicles to 30 percent by 2030. It also announced its first critical minerals strategy this year, identifying 30 minerals including cobalt, copper and lithium as essential for its growth.
Another significant aspect of the bilateral relationship between Washington and New Delhi is the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), which was signed in 2022.
The initiative aims to foster outcome-oriented cooperation in emerging technologies and develop technology value chains. iCET is co-led by the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) in India and the US National Security Council (NSC).
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India-South Korea ties at 50
As India and South Korea celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations, the trilateral dialogue with Seoul is a crucial step.
South Korea is a global leader in emerging technologies, such as semiconductors — a crucial component of IT devices — as well as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and more.
Currently, semiconductors (chips) are Seoul’s largest export, accounting for 18.9 percent of the country’s total exports last year.
India, on the other hand, has been striving to position itself as a global manufacturing hub for semiconductors.
Earlier this year, South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix was examining India as an assembly and testing destination, after evaluating India’s semiconductor manufacturing incentive scheme, said a report in the Indian Express.
The company, which mainly produces memory chips for computing, consumer and network applications, plans to set up a packaging facility in the country, the report said.
This came after the announcement by US-based semiconductor manufacturing company Micron that it would open a packaging facility in Gujarat at a total cost of $2.75 billion, of which 70 percent would come from subsidies from the central and state governments, with the company investing only only $825 million.
India and South Korea have also been working on enhancing cooperation along the avenues of emerging technologies over the past few years.
In 2019, they signed the Roadmap for Defence Industries Cooperation for joint production of land and naval defence systems.
In 2021, they agreed to start joint production and export of military hardware, increase intelligence sharing and strengthen cooperation in the cyber and space domains, as part of a broader expansion of defence and security ties.
This agreement was reached during a meeting in New Delhi between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his then South Korean counterpart Suh Wook, who expressed South Korea’s interest in investing in joint ventures under the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative.
This year, during the G20 summit in New Delhi, an 11-member South Korean delegation visited India “to find Indian partners for joint-ventures, technology transfer and trade,” with many companies “keen to sign MoUs with participating Indian companies at the interaction”.
These companies were reportedly looking at collaboration on a range of products — from radars, satellite communication and electro-optics to diesel submarines and lithium batteries.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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