New Delhi: National security advisor Ajit Doval and his visiting American counterpart Jake Sullivan on Tuesday discussed the roadmap for bilateral collaboration in seven high-technology areas, even as they firmed up the “deliverables” for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington later this month.

The roadmap was part of the agenda at the second 1.5 track dialogue on the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, attended by both Doval and Sullivan.

Speaking at the event, Sullivan said both sides are working on several "deliverables" during Modi's upcoming visit, which would help to "remove obstacles" for deeper cooperation in the areas of defence, high technology, trade and a greater exchange of students.

“As we look ahead to the state visit that Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi will be embarking upon to Washington next week, a number of the deliverables at that visit are not just bullet points on a page. They are fundamentally designed to remove obstacles in defence and high-tech trades and in taking away obstacles that have stood in the way of better collaboration among our scientists and researchers," Sullivan said.

On the side-lines of the Quad summit in Tokyo in May 2022, US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Modi announced that they will expand cooperation in Critical and Emerging Technology, known as iCET.

The first strategic dialogue on iCET was held in January this year in Washington with the two NSAs chairing the meeting, where they unveiled a roadmap for collaboration.

The seven sectors identified under the iCET roadmap are semiconductors, next-generation telecommunication, artificial intelligence, defence, space, biotechnology and advanced materials. All of these priority areas are linked to the US desire to 'decouple' or 'derisk' itself from China as relations between the two big powers grow increasingly fraught.

“The US and India are poised to lead in clean energy transformation, shore up and diversify global semi-conductor supply chains and supply chains in other critical goods, and lead the revolution in AI, advanced computing, biotech and quantum,” said Sullivan at the CII event.

In his remarks, Doval said close collaboration in iCET will give an 'orbital jump' to the strategic relations between India and the United States

The US’s top national security official arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday, following which he held closed door talks with Doval. After attending the CII roundtable, Sullivan called on Modi.

As per a readout from the Ministry of External Affairs, the two NSAs have been in regular touch in “extensive discussions on a broad bilateral, regional and global agenda”.  “The current visit, which comes in the run-up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to the US, will give them the opportunity to continue their high-level dialogue, which will include a review of the robust and multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries as well as a survey of the India-US global strategic partnership,” it said.

During his meeting with Modi, Sullivan said that the US president looked forward to welcoming the prime minister later this month, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

The prime minister expressed satisfaction at the growing and deepening Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership between India and the US, the statement said.

Prime Minister Modi said that he looked forward to a productive visit and an engaging conversation with President Biden on bilateral, regional, and global issues of mutual interest.

Note: This article was updated after it was published.

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