Ajit Doval's US visit: National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval along with his US counterpart Jake Sullivan and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo attended a Track 1.5 event hosted by the US-India Business Council in Washington on Tuesday, January 31. Meanwhile, a round table conference was also conducted on the sidelines of the official high-level dialogue of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET).
According to reports, leading industry figures from both India and the US attended the event. Earlier on Monday, January 30, Doval was welcomed by Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu when he arrived in Washington.
Doval to hold official meeting with US NSC Sullivan today
The official meeting between Doval and US NSC Sullivan will take place on Tuesday afternoon in the White House. The meeting is expected to focus on aligning both nations' strategic, commercial and scientific approaches specifically in the field of technology.
"iCET is the next big milestone in India-US Strategic Partnership with a simple objective to take bilateral cooperation to the next level but specifically in areas of interest to India," an official familiar with the India-US deliberations told ANI.
Indian delegation includes five high-profile members
The NSA is accompanied by a high-powered delegation including India's Principal Scientific Adviser, ISRO chairman, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications, and DG of DRDO.
From the US side besides Sullivan, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, NSC Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell, Senior director for national security and technology Tarun Chhabra and State Department's deputy envoy for the office of critical and emerging technologies Seth Center will be a part of the dialogue.
ICET was first mentioned in 2022
It should be noted here that ICET was first mentioned in a statement after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Tokyo in 2022 on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders Summit.
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"Through ICET, India would send a message out to the broader industry that India can be a 'trusted partner' and that the two democracies could discuss how to build a trusted partner ecosystem between US and India where there's a free flow of R&D and other information pertaining to technology specifically," an official remarked.
(With ANI inputs)
