Name: U.S. brings Israel, Qatar & UAE into supply chain agreement
Uploaded: 2026-01-13T09:49:53.945Z
Duration: 5 min 47 s
Description: Jacob Helberg, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, talks about Pax Silica and the US-led effort to secure chip & tech-related supply chains.

Jacob Helberg, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, talks about Pax Silica and the US-led effort to secure chip & tech-related supply chains.

Abu Dhabi

The United States has brought Israel, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates into the PACSOLICA supply chain agreement, a coalition focused on securing and diversifying technological and critical mineral supply chains. The initiative aims to reduce single points of failure and prevent supply chains from being used as geopolitical leverage, with a particular emphasis on the risks posed by China's dominance in key sectors.

This expansion marks a significant diplomatic achievement, especially given the historical divides among Middle Eastern participants. While Saudi Arabia is not yet a signatory, discussions are ongoing, and the U.S. has recently signed a landmark AI deal with the kingdom, signaling potential for further regional collaboration.

U.S. brings Israel, Qatar & UAE into supply chain agreement

So what PACSOLICA is, is it's a set of first principles, it's a set of policy initiatives, and it's a set of infrastructure projects that allow operationalizing a vision. The basic logical implication of the new economic security consensus that we're seeing among our allies is that the geography of the supply chains our economies depend on needs to be secure, reliable, and competitive. And that means addressing single points of failure with high risks of disruption. So it's not about isolating any specific country, it's about ourselves. It's about the fact that every country in PACSOLICA agrees that the AI revolution is going to be a defining feature for the future of our national wealth and our national power. And ultimately, one of the fascinating things about this partnership and the fact that Qatar joined PACSOLICA alongside Israel, as well as six other countries, is proof that PACSOLICA doesn't follow traditional alliance geometries. It's not a rigid ideological block. As we look at the signatories like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the UK, Australia, Israel, and now Qatar, it is a coalition of capabilities. And so we're gathering the countries that have the capital, that have the industrial capacity, and the strategic will to secure the technological future. So am I correct in also assuming that this is about firming up the challenge to China, as you've alluded to, and ultimately de-risking the critical mineral supply chain today that China effectively controls? So, look, China currently has over half of the world's legacy chip nodes. It has over 90% of the world's critical minerals. And it has a very large portion, roughly 85% of the world's smartphone manufacturing ecosystem. So to the extent that there's only one country on Earth that actually makes everything today, you could say that that poses a significant challenge. You could say that that poses a single point of failure that poses all of us to a lot of risks. Ultimately, the reason that this is not about China is because one of the goals of PACSOLICA is to make sure that there aren't any single points of failure. So it's really not about China specifically. It's about de-risking in general, because it's really about ourselves. It's about making sure that all of our economies are secure, are sovereign. And it's about ensuring that the supply chain is not used as a geopolitical weapon against any of us. Speaking of the politics, I wanted to go back to the Middle East angle here as well, because one of the great achievements of this coalition is that you have been able to bring Israel, Qatar, and the UAE into this shared technological framework. It is a massive diplomatic lift. So hats off to the administration for actually being able to put that together, given the historical divide that we've seen between these countries. Can you expand on the significance of that as well? Well, it's incredibly exciting. The Middle East is a fascinating tale of two cities between the old Middle East and the new Middle East. The new Middle East is rich because it's a powerhouse of knowledge, culture, and scientific discovery. And the old Middle East is poor because it's dogmatic, resentful, and all about grievances. From a purely economic standpoint, you're seeing the new Middle East emerge in Israel, the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. And you're seeing the old Middle East and Iran and its proxies. And this week, we're marking the expansion of Qatar and the UAE to Pax Ilica, which you're right, it is quite historic. And tying the UAE, Qatar, and Israel together in the same economic framework is proof that AI has a stronger gravity well than historical grievance. And it's also proof that shared supply chains are stronger than shared ideology. A lot of these nations disagree on a lot of things, but they all agree on one existential reality, that to be left out in the AI race is a national security threat. So they're parking their political differences at the door to secure their economic future, and we're very supportive of that. And to go back to what you were saying before, of course, Qatar and the UAE are in, but Saudi Arabia, not yet a signatory. Is that by design, or is there a timeline on getting the Saudis into this agreement as well? Well, Saudi Arabia is one of America's oldest allies in the region for roughly 90 years. President Trump and the Crown Prince have a very close and special relationship. And the United States and Saudi Arabia just signed a historic landmark AI deal. And I'll be meeting with the CEO of Humane, Saudi Arabia's AI champion, just later today. So we're very close. I'm thrilled to be in Riyadh right now as I'm speaking with you on my first official visit here. We're actively having conversations about ways that the United States and the Kingdom can collaborate much more closely together on a number of different fronts. Ultimately, a lot of those conversations are still early. So it would be premature to prejudge the outcome of specific discussions at this stage, since we're still just getting started. But there's a lot of very positive momentum and clear opportunities I hope we can seize together.

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