US, Israel strengthen AI and advanced tech ties under Pax Silica Initiative

The United States and Israel on Friday signed a statement establishing a new bilateral Strategic Framework for Cooperation in advanced technological fields, including artificial intelligence (AI). The statement is part of the Pax Silica partnership between the United States and allied nations.

Israel’s Head of the National AI Directorate, Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Erez Eskel, and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg signed the document outside the historic walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also attended the ceremony. Sa’ar hailed the agreement as the latest expression of the close ties between the two countries.

“Today's statement is further proof...Israel is an indispensable asset for America and its National Security interests,” Sa’ar stated.

The U.S. ambassador also emphasized the unique relation between the U.S. and Israel. 

“I often say that America has many friends and allies, but we have only one true partner in Israel,” Huckabee stated. “Israel and the United States intend to continue their deep, durable partnership through joint research, development, investment, and commercialization across a broad range of strategic sectors,” the ambassador continued. 

Last month, Israel formally joined the American-led Pax Silica Initiative, which seeks to secure the rapidly expanding AI industry. 

“Together with our international partners, we are working to fortify the global AI industry, strengthen the resilience of supply chains, and ensure the economic and security prosperity of the participating countries and their citizens," Avi Simhon, Israel’s National Economic Council chief, announced in December. 

During the ceremony, Helberg said Washington was pleased to see how “the most technologically advanced countries in the world” are joining Pax Silica.

“I am proud to note that barely a month ago, we launched the Pax Silica declaration as a group of seven countries, since then we’ve now expanded it to nine countries. India has been announced to join next month,” Helberg said.

The current members of the AI partnership include: the United States, Japan, Israel, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, Qatar, India and the United Arab Emirates. 

The Pax Silica was established as a cooperative organization against potentially hostile countries such as China, Russia and Iran. The initiative also seeks to reduce Washington’s current high dependence on China concerning semiconductor nodes and critical minerals. 

Helberg addressed the current American and Western dependence on Chinese supplies. 

“Regardless of how one feels about China, it is not good business to be reliant on a single point of failure, and everyone understands that and is now partnering to de-risk single points of failure in the supply chain” he said.

“Now that we have this cohort of partners, we are going to start shifting our attention towards implementation. We want to focus on the arteries of supply chain with logistics. We want to focus on the muscle on industrial capacity and the fuel- energy and capital- that will ultimately be propellent for everything else,” Helberg explained. 

He stressed that the member states are carefully selected according to their respective capabilities and contributions to the AI cooperation. 

“We want to move numbers in a way that is actually meaningful for our supply chain and American companies. We want capabilities and scale and if the partner that can deliver that are startups, then great, if it's not, it's not. We are going to focus on partners who can deliver,” Helberg said, stressing that “our goal is to secure our supply chains for our companies and America's security.”