TRUST replaces iCET: New brand, old spirit on tech partnership
The two sides announced transformative measures, including US-India TRUST initiative, roadmap to accelerate AI infra and INDUS Innovation, to boost tech ties
WASHINGTON: The initiative on critical and emerging technologies (iCET), a legacy of the Joe Biden administration, has given way to Transforming Relations Utilising Strategic Technologies (TRUST) as the governing framework of tech ties under the Donald Trump administration. But TRUST is based on the same spirit of trust that governed iCET. And therein lies the true achievement.
Like iCET, TRUST envisages a role for governments, academia, and private sector “to promote application of critical and emerging technologies in areas such as defense, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum, biotechnology, energy and space”, while specifically mentioning the need to use “verified technology vendors and ensuring sensitive technologies are protected”.
Commenting on the shift, Rudra Chaudhari, director of Carnegie India, which has played a key role in Track 1.5 negotiations on the tech partnership, said, “It is a welcome development. iCET set a fundamental platform for both countries to get to know each other and set the foundations for true strategic transformations. With the TRUST conceptualisation, the Trump White House wants to go further in deepening tech ties in areas where India has invested in national missions such as critical minerals, deepening trusted supply chains and even in areas such as quantum which saw little traction in the Biden years. There is optimism on both sides.”
AI takes centre stage
If AI governance was a core focus of iCET, in keeping with the Trump administration’s focus on AI as an opportunity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump committed to work with private industry to put forward a “US-India Roadmap on Accelerating AI Infrastructure” by the end of 2025.
In a clear sign that India sees itself as aligned to the western tech world, this roadmap will involve identifying constraints to “financing, building, powering, and connecting large-scale US-origin AI infrastructure in India with milestones and future actions”.
“The US and India will work together to enable industry partnerships and investments in next generation data centers, cooperation on development and access to compute and processors for AI, for innovations in AI models and building AI applications for solving societal challenges while addressing the protections and controls necessary to protect these technologies and reduce regulatory barriers,” the joint statement said.
Innovation ecosystems
iCET helped create INDUS-X, an innovation bridge that facilitated the partnership between American and Indian defence companies, investors and universities to produce critical capability for the militaries. The model worked well and TRUST has decided to stay with it and hold the next summit in 2025. Incidentally, Trump’s current national security advisor Michael Waltz spoke at the last INDUS-X summit held in Stanford University last year.
Building on the same model, India and the US announced the launch of INDUS Innovation. This new innovation bridge aims to advance industry and academic partnerships and “foster investments in space, energy, and other emerging technologies to maintain US and India leadership in innovation”.
Carnegie’s Chaudhari said, “It is clear that both sides are seeking to build mutually inclusive innovation ecosystems. It is good news that they have kept INDUS-X, and have decided to double down on a new mechanism in the form of INDUS Innovation which will include a range of strategic technologies and include matchmaking that’s truly required for this.”
Supply chains, critical minerals
As part of TRUST, the two countries reiterated their commitment to build “trusted and resilient supply chains, including for semiconductors, critical minerals, advanced materials and pharmaceuticals”.
But in a more concrete manner than iCET, the leaders also agreed to encourage public and private investments in expanding Indian manufacturing capacity, including in the US, for active pharmaceutical ingredients for critical medicines. “These investments will create good jobs, diversify vital supply chains, and reduce the risk of life-saving drug shortages in both the United States and India”, the statement said.
Based on the importance of critical minerals for emerging technologies and advanced manufacturing (and China’s dominance in the space), India and the US have also agreed to “accelerate collaboration in research and development and promote investment across the entire critical mineral value chain”. They will also continue to do this through the Mineral Security Partnership.
“Both countries have committed to intensifying efforts to deepen cooperation in the exploration, beneficiation, and processing as well as recycling technologies of critical minerals. To this end, the leaders announced the launch of the Strategic Mineral Recovery initiative, a new US-India program to recover and process critical minerals (including lithium, cobalt, and rare earths) from heavy industries such as aluminum, coal mining and oil and gas.” This is a new initiative.
Space and science
In an area of continuity, India and the US agreed to double their efforts on space cooperation. The statement acknowledged that 2025 was a pioneering year for US-India civil space cooperation, “with plans for a NASA-ISRO effort through AXIOM to bring the first Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS), and early launch of the joint “NISAR” mission, the first of its kind to systematically map changes to the Earth’s surface using dual radars”.
The statement added that the leaders had called for more collaboration in space exploration, “including on long duration human spaceflight missions, spaceflight safety and sharing of expertise and professional exchanges in emerging areas, including planetary protection”. They also committed to “further commercial space collaboration through industry engagements in conventional and emerging areas, such as connectivity, advanced spaceflight, satellite and space launch systems, space sustainability, space tourism and advanced space manufacturing”. Given the mushrooming of India’s private space industry, this can open up space and opportunities for domestic Indian players to collaborate with established US majors.
Like iCET, TRUST has recognised the value of collaboration between scientific research communities, with a new partnership between the US National Science Foundation and the Indian Anusandhan National Research Foundation in researching critical and emerging technologies. The statement acknowledges that this will build on already existing collaboration between National Science Foundation and several Indian science agencies “to enable joint research in the areas of semiconductors, connected vehicles, machine learning, next-generation telecommunications, intelligent transportation systems, and future biomanufacturing”.
Across administrations, a feature of the India-US partnership has been the commitment to deepening tech ties, a far cry from the old days, when tech-denial was the norm of the day and served as the instinctive recourse of American leaders and officials and suspicion of the US served as the instinct of Indian officialdom. Both iCET and now TRUST has replaced suspicion with growing trust. The US is willing to do more, and India is willing to align itself more.
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