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| ▲ This photo, released by South Korea's foreign ministry, shows senior officials from South Korea, the United States, Japan and other countries attending the Pax Silica summit in Washington on Dec. 12, 2025. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
US-Pax Silica coalition
UAE joins U.S.-led AI supply chain coalition including S. Korea; India's entry set for next month
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (Yonhap) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday signed a document to participate in a growing U.S.-led coalition for supply chain cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI), critical minerals and other areas, joining South Korea and seven other signatories to the group.
The State Department said that Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg and UAE Minister of State Saeed Bin Mubarak Al Hajeri signed the Middle East nation's accession to Pax Silica, an economic security initiative launched last month, as Washington seeks to counter China's growing heft in advanced technologies.
India plans to join as a signatory to the coalition next month, according to the department.
The coalition now consists of nine members: South Korea, the United States, Australia, Israel, Japan, Qatar, Singapore, Britain and the UAE.
"The United States and the United Arab Emirates affirmed their commitment to jointly pursue multilayered partnerships that strengthen supply chain security, address coercive dependencies and single points of failure, and advance the adoption of trusted technology ecosystems," the department said in a media note.
"They will explore opportunities to partner on flagship projects across the global technology stack, including connectivity and edge infrastructure such as 6G; compute and data centers; advanced manufacturing; logistics; mineral refining and processing; and energy."
The grouping comes as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is pushing to enhance America's global "AI dominance," ensure stable supply chains for critical minerals and counter China's control over those strategically vital resources, amid an intensifying rivalry between the two superpowers.
Pax Silica draws from the Latin "pax", meaning peace, stability and long-term prosperity, while silica refers to the compound refined into silicon, a chemical element key to the computer chips that enable artificial intelligence, according to the State Department.
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