India, US hold maiden strategic trade dialogue

The inaugural meeting of India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue (IUSSTD) was held in Washington DC on Tuesday in the runup to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US from June 21.

The IUSSTD focused on ways in which both the governments can facilitate the development and trade of technologies in critical domains such as semiconductors, space, telecom, quantum, AI, defence, biotech and others, officials said.

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


The Indian delegation was led by foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra. The US delegation was co-led by Alan Estevez, under secretary for industry and security in the US Department of Commerce and Ambassador Victoria Nuland, under secretary of state for political affairs in the US Department of State.

The 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). Next week, the iCET will hold a high-level dialogue here.

The two sides also reviewed the ongoing cooperation in multilateral export control regimes and agreed to share best practices.

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

Both India and the US agreed to set up a regular monitoring group which will review progress in deepening cooperation in the bilateral high-tech trade and technology partnership. The co-chairs agreed to continue the dialogue with the objective of strengthening the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, officials informed.