US NSA Sullivan highlights challenges posed by China's "predatorial industrial strategies" and importance of India-US collaboration

Sullivan emphasized the significance of stronger defence cooperation between the US and India, citing its role in enabling greater security across the region during an event at IIT Delhi during the session, 'The United States and India: Building a shared future.'

Speaking about clean energy and the electronics industries, NSA Sullivan said, "We've seen companies struggling to compete against China's predatorial industrial strategies and chips and clean energy and other emerging technologies, and of course, we've seen repeated attacks on industries tied to our critical infrastructure, which is heightening the risks not only to cyber espionage but of destructive sabotage. That's why as we launched ISA, both President Biden and Prime Minister Modi made it a priority to invest in national programmes that are spurring production in sectors that have become overly reliant on a single country, China. These include the US Chips and Science Act, the India Semiconductor mission, and India's production-linked incentive (PLI) programme in areas such as biopharmaceuticals."

Sullivan's remarks at IIT Delhi focused on the Indo-Pacific region and the growth of the India-US defence partnership over the past two decades. He noted that the partnership has evolved from no defence trade relationship 25 years ago to the current collaborative manufacturing of defence systems in India.

He observed that the benefits of these programmes are already flowing to both India and the US. Mentioning the American semiconductor company Micron, Sullivan said that it was the first, not just American but global company to partner with India's semiconductor mission, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new semiconductor packaging facilities aimed at establishing "India as a new hub in the global chip ecosystem."

Sullivan also highlighted the benefits of the US Chips and Science Act, the India Semiconductor mission, and India's production-linked incentive (PLI) program in reducing dependence on single-source suppliers, particularly China.

He noted, "India and the United States joined hands with the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Europe to establish a new biopharmaceutical supply chain consortium, the BIO5, that will help reduce dependence on single source suppliers in terms of the supply chain for biopharmaceuticals. We are poised now to expand those efforts into new sectors, most notably commercial space exploration."

Speaking about the Indo-Pacific region and the India-US defence partnership, Sullivan said, "The growth of our defence partnership over the past two decades has been nothing short of remarkable. Consider that 25 years ago, the US and India had no defence trade relationship at all. No frameworks for information sharing or logistics cooperation. No major military exercises to train alongside each other. Today, the US isn't just selling defence systems to India, we are making them here in India and the United States has become a top destination for Indian defence exports".

He mentioned how American and Indian startups are working to bring forth new technologies for our militaries. The US and India are co-producing defence systems, with the US becoming a top destination for Indian defence exports. American and Indian startups are working together to develop new technologies for military applications.

"On top of this, in the past 2 years alone, the Biden administration has approved technology proposals that would enable India to become the first global producer of striker combat vehicles, a leading producer of advanced munition systems, and the first foreign producer of cutting edge maritime systems. We've already announced a ground-breaking initiative to enable India to manufacture jet engines that will power India's future indigenous fighter fleet, and even more work is underway in aviation and sensing and undersea that will come to fruition soon. So many of these initiatives can spread way beyond the US and India to eventually help countries across the Indo-Pacific region upgrade their defensive capabilities as well, because that is a critical goal that unites us to ensure a freer, more secure, more prosperous, and more resilient Indo-Pacific region," Sullivan said.

He mentioned that "through the multinational combined Maritime Forces Coalition, of which India is now a full-time member, we are combating both piracy and trafficking at sea. Through Exercise Malabar, the US, India, Australia, and Japan are training to more rapidly respond to natural disasters across the region. And through historic agreements that allow US Navy vessels to seek repair and maintenance in Indian shipyards in Kochi, Mumbai, and soon Chennai, the United States can more readily train and operate with countries across the Indian Ocean region. At a time when we're seeing more dangerous provocations in the air and at sea, the proliferation of destabilising technologies, and countries attempting to change the status quo by force, our cooperation in technology, in defence and beyond is rapidly becoming one of the core pillars of stability across the Indo-Pacific." (ANI)