National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is on an official visit to Washington DC from 30 January to 1 February 2023. He is accompanied by senior Government of India officials as well as leaders of Indian industry. During the visit, NSA interacted with U.S. policymakers and stakeholders across Government, Congress, business, academic and research communities on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest. Apart from his meeting with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, he also met Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, Acting Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, key Senators and industry leaders. He is scheduled to meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken later during the visit.
Together with NSA Sullivan, NSA Doval co-chaired the inaugural meeting of the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) at the White House on 31 January 2023, translating into action, the announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joseph Biden during their meeting in Tokyo in May 2022. NSA was joined at the launch by Ambassador of India to the United States, Principal Scientific Advisor, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Chairman of ISRO, Scientific Advisor to the Raksha Mantri, Director General, DRDO, and other senior officials from National Security Council Secretariat and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. On the US side, NASA Administrator, Director, National Science Foundation (NSF), Deputy National Security Advisor, amongst others participated.
iCET aims to position the two countries as trusted technology partners by building technology value chains and support the co-development and co-production of items. It also aims to address regulatory restrictions, export controls and mobility barriers through a standing mechanism. The US side also assured support to ease export barriers to India in a few critical areas, including through efforts towards legislative changes. Emphasis was placed on strengthening linkages between the startup ecosystems and building innovation bridges in key sectors between the two countries, through expos, hackathons and pitching sessions.
