The Trump administration wants to achieve “Pax Silica” using AI. Here’s what it means

The Trump administration is rapidly expanding an initiative to secure global AI and technology supply chains.

Led by the United States, six countries – Israel, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the United Kingdom – came together last month to form a coalition to protect the supply of silicon, essential for most technological applications, including AI. This effort aims to cover all levels of the supply chain, from critical minerals, energy and advanced manufacturing to semiconductors, AI infrastructure and logistics.

“This is an operational document for a new consensus on economic security,” said Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg. Reuters on Sunday.

“We encourage partnership efforts across strategic stacks of the global technology supply chain, including but not limited to software applications and platforms, frontier foundation models, information connectivity and network infrastructure, computing and semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, transportation logistics, mineral refining and processing, and energy,” read a statement. statement signed by member countries.

Although only seven countries in total signed the declaration, Helberg reported that Qatar and the United Arab Emirates would join the framework next week. The Trump administration has also initiated discussions on this initiative with the European Union, Canada and Taiwan.

The program is called Pax Silica, modeled after Pax Romana, Latin for Roman peace. “Silica” is related to “Silicon” in English, but that part is not Latin. The term describes a two-century period of relative political stability and economic prosperity in ancient Rome as the empire, led by tyrannical emperorsdoubled in size through notable bloody conquests, eventually including a quarter of the world’s population at the time.

At the heart of this Pax Silica initiative are concerns about an AI supply chain dominated by China.

China controls about 90% of the world’s supply of rare earths, a group of elements essential to building computer chips used in smartphones and AI systems.

Last year, China exploited this power by cracking down on rare earth exports in response to Trump’s tariff measures against Beijing. The countermeasures hit the global technology industry hard, and gave China’s Xi Jinping a the top in trade negotiations with Trump.

In response, the United States has led calls for reduced reliance on Chinese critical minerals, something Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also intends to do. would have to put pressure on as he hosts top financial officials from the EU, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Mexico and South Korea this week.

While holding a near-monopoly on critical elements, China is also working to rapidly expand its overall global influence, particularly when it comes to key infrastructure, technology and AI.

The effort began about a decade ago thanks to the Belt and Road Initiativean ambitious infrastructure investment project intended to strengthen China’s trade ties and influence abroad. Last year, Chinese officials indicated a similar approach to artificial intelligence development by calling for the creation of a global AI cooperation organization focused on open source communities and joint research, but centered on Shanghai, according to Chinese terms and values.

“By aligning our approaches to economic security, we can begin to have a cohesion that would essentially block China’s Belt and Road Initiative — which is actually designed to amplify its export-oriented model — by denying China the ability to purchase ports, major highways, transportation and logistics corridors,” Helberg said. Policy last month.

But while beat China in the global AI race This is the main objective of the Trump administration, but it is not the only one.

The State Department’s economic security strategy is based on “four pillars,” Helberg said in a statement. press briefing following the Pax Silica summit: rebalancing trade, reindustrializing America, securing supply chains and stabilizing conflict zones via economic solutions “from sub-Saharan Africa to the Middle East”.

The last of these pillars makes the two latest alleged additions to the Pax Silica crew remarkable: Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, two of the most influential Arab countries. While the UAE normalized relations with Israel in 2020 under Trump’s leadership, Abraham Accords and the two now have a commercial relationship, the Israeli offensive in Gaza has somewhat cooled these links. And although Qatar is a key mediator in negotiations between Israel and Hamas, it has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel and no cordial relations have been established. under increased pressure after Israel bombed the Qatari capital Doha in September 2025.