The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday joined a U.S.-led initiative to secure AI and semiconductor ‍supply chains, dubbed ‍Pax Silica, further strengthening economic ties with the United States.

The programme is ​a key pillar of the Trump administration’s economic statecraft strategy to reduce dependence on rival nations ⁠and strengthen cooperation among allied partners.

The group also includes Australia, Britain, Israel, Japan, Qatar, Singapore and ⁠South Korea.

"Ultimately ‌we want to focus on the arteries of the supply chain, primarily logistics, the muscle of the supply chain, via industrial capacity, and the fuel ⁠of the supply chain, primarily capital and energy," U.S. Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg told Reuters.

"And we view the UAE as a comprehensive partner that can make meaningful and important contributions in all three of those areas."

Helberg invited ⁠the UAE on behalf of ​President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to a ministerial level meeting on critical minerals in Washington ‍next month, which he said would include a "large group" of countries.

The UAE has been spending billions of dollars ​to become a global AI hub, looking to leverage its strong relations with Washington to secure access to U.S. technology, such as some of the world's most advanced chips.

It has also signed a multibillion-dollar deal to build one of the world's largest data centre hubs in Abu Dhabi with U.S. technology.

Asked whether Trump's threat to impose a 25% tariff on U.S. trade by countries - a group including the UAE - that do business with Iran would affect the U.S.-UAE relationship, Helberg said he ws "very confident in the strength and depth of America's relationship ⁠with the UAE".

While Gulf neighbour Qatar is part ‌of the Pax Silica programme, regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which also harbours ambitions to evolve into a global AI hub, is not.

Helberg said he held an initial round of ‌discussions with Riyadh ⁠on Tuesday but that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia had also already negotiated a very substantial ⁠bilateral AI deal.

(Reporting by Rachna Uppal; editing by Mark Heinrich)