The UK and India jointly announced a Technology Security Initiative on Wednesday. Its goals include securing telecom networks and fostering cooperation in important fields including semiconductors, health technology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and essential minerals.

Following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the project was reported to be launched. David Lammy, the visiting foreign secretary from the United Kingdom, made this announcement. The UK and India Technology Security project will be supervised by the national security agencies (NSAs) of both nations, the same as the US-India project.

With an emphasis on accelerating economic growth in both nations, the Technology Security Initiative will strengthen and modernize the entire strategic alliance between India and the UK. Following discussions between the two nations to increase cooperation in vital and developing technologies across key industries, the idea was approved by the NSAs of the UK and India, according to authorities.

What Comes Under this Program Between the UK and India:

Under this program, research and development institutes, academia, the government, and the corporate sector will collaborate.

UK and India
Image Source: UKRI

During their discussion, Jaishankar and Lammy discussed the Roadmap 2030 for bilateral ties and expressed gratitude for the advancements made thus far. The external affairs ministry stated that they also decided to consider updating the plan in order to raise the bar for bilateral collaboration.

In order to increase bilateral collaboration in priority areas like trade, investment, defence, security, migration and mobility, information technology, artificial intelligence and technology, science and technology, innovation, and green energy, both parties agreed to finalize details for the roadmap renewal in line with current realities in a time-bound manner.

The External Affairs Ministry stated that both the UK and India were pleased with the "significant progress" that had been achieved in the discussions for a free trade agreement (FTA) and "looked forward to its early conclusion to achieve a mutually beneficial" trade accord.

According to the ministry, the two parties also decided to strengthen defence and security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond and to improve their capacity to deal with "growing threats from non-state actors."

Along with these topics of mutual interest, Jaishankar and Lammy also spoke about the UN Security Council, the Commonwealth, the West Asian and Red Sea situations, and the crisis between Russia and Ukraine.

The effort is intended to take the strategic collaboration between the UK and India to the next level, according to a joint information sheet on the Technology Security Initiative. The program will sharpen attention on collaboration in vital and emerging technologies, building on the cooperation strategy outlined in the Roadmap 2030. Furthermore, it will expand the purview of current processes, provide new channels for collaboration, and strengthen current cooperative endeavours across a range of technologies.

India has the Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) initiative with the US and the Trade and Technology Council with the European Union in addition to the Technology Security Initiative with the UK. The goals of all three programs are to establish guidelines and work together on leading-edge technology development.

India and the UK will establish an expanded "Future Telecoms Partnership" under the Technology Security Initiative, with an emphasis on collaborative research on open radio access network (open RAN) technologies, testbed linkups, telecom security, spectrum innovation, software, and systems design.

In the area of critical minerals, the UK and India will increase policy exchanges and collaboration on their critical mineral strategies. They will also work together to enhance supply chain resilience, investigate technology and research and development partnerships throughout the entire critical minerals value chain, and create a roadmap for future cooperation.

The two parties will endeavour to establish wide cooperation in the semiconductor industry that capitalizes on their respective advantages and investigates mutually beneficial research and development centred on hardware security, talent exchanges, and supply chain resilience. Additionally, they will promote cooperation between academia and business, particularly in the areas of compound semiconductors, sophisticated packaging, and chip design.

UK and India will collaborate to develop "safe, responsible, human-centric and trustworthy AI" in the field of artificial intelligence, with the goal of advancing global goodwill and bolstering interoperability between their respective AI governance frameworks. Additionally, they will collaborate in international fora like the UN, Global Partnership on AI, and the G20.

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