The US this week plans to announce that Norway will become the 15th country to join Pax Silica, a consortium of countries that is trying to counter China’s influence in critical minerals, tech, and AI.
“Norway is home to the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, and the depth of that institutional capital combined with critical mineral reserves are important,” said Jacob Helberg, Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs, in an interview.
In the coming days, Helberg will also visit a 4,000-square-foot industrial site in the Philippines; that country joined the US-led group in February and provided the land to the State Department for two years.
Helberg will be accompanied by a delegation of business leaders from tech, logistics, and manufacturing companies that are interested in working with the governments of the US and the Philippines on the commercial buildout of the manufacturing hub, which seeks to tap the country’s nickel, copper, and other mineral resources and diversify global supply chains away from China.
While the Pax Silica declaration isn’t binding, Helberg said the State Department plans to announce a series of commercial deals with a half-dozen large corporations in what he called a “product-based approach to economic statecraft.”
“If we want our US factories to thrive and be successful, we need to move every part of the supply chain into the hands of countries that are reliable so that factories in Ohio and Arkansas will never be held hostage by foreign adversaries,” he said, noting that China’s export controls are “holding the world economy hostage.”
The move comes as the Trump administration continues planning for a trade summit in China, where the president is expected to meet Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14-15.