U.S. to Form Supply Chain Coalition with Japan, Others

Washington, Dec. 11 (Jiji Press)–The United States will launch a coalition with Japan and other countries to strengthen supply chains for critical minerals and artificial intelligence, the State Department said Thursday. The Pax Silica partnership is a “U.S.-led strategic initiative to build a secure, prosperous, and innovation driven silicon supply chain–from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and logistics,” a State Department spokesperson said. Aligning the partners’ economic security approaches will allow them to have cohesion to block China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, Jacob Helberg, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic affairs, told U.S. media. The inaugural Pax Silica partners also include South Korea, Australia, Israel and Singapore. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]