UAE and Qatar Sign US-Led Pax Silica Accord to Shield AI Supply Chains From China

Japan, Australia, Israel, the United Kingdom, South Korea and India are the other signatories, according to Jacob Helberg, the US under secretary of state for economic affairs, the newspaper reported. Helberg said Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the European Commission are expected to sign next week.

The agreement, titled the "San Francisco Declaration on the Secure Foundations of Enduring Prosperity", sits under Pax Silica, the US-led initiative covering semiconductors, critical minerals and energy infrastructure. It was signed ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Shenzhen, and as Washington accuses Beijing of failing to meet commitments under the trade truce the two leaders reached in late 2025.

According to accounts of the text, signatories will draw up a shared list of critical technologies and supply chains that support AI and need greater protection against Chinese influence. They will form working groups to address weak points in those supply chains, share information on where sourcing should be diversified and develop "economic hubs" meant to attract investment into related industries. The declaration also calls for stronger safeguards against the theft or unauthorised transfer of technology that could give hostile actors a military or intelligence advantage, and states that economic security is fundamental to national security.

Helberg said the agreement reflects the fact that AI technologies and infrastructure often span several countries, which makes supply-chain security a shared responsibility, according to the reports. The published accounts did not describe an enforcement mechanism, a budget or a timetable for the working groups, and did not say whether the list of protected technologies will be made public.

For the Gulf, the declaration adds operational commitments to a relationship the UAE and Qatar formalised earlier this year. Gulf News reported in January that Saeed bin Mubarak Al Hajeri, the UAE Minister of State, signed the UAE's accession to Pax Silica alongside Helberg, making it the initiative's ninth signatory, and that Saudi Arabia was not a member. Saudi Arabia is again absent from the countries named on Sunday.

The UAE's large AI data centre projects run on advanced US chips that need export licences from Washington, so the terms of any jointly agreed list of sensitive technologies and the information-sharing that follows bear directly on Abu Dhabi's plans. Qatar has also been building its own AI investment programme. Neither government had commented on the new declaration in the reports reviewed.

The accord lands while US scrutiny of AI chip flows to China is at a peak. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has given Nvidia's board 10 days to answer questions about whether shell companies routed its processors to China, and Republicans in Congress are seeking to write tighter chip export curbs into the annual defence bill following Jensen Huang's departure as Nvidia chief executive.

The list of signatories also differs from Pax Silica's earlier membership. Singapore, which Gulf News listed in January among the countries that signed the original Pax Silica declaration, was not among those Helberg named. The next test of the accord's reach comes next week, when Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the European Commission are expected to add their signatures.