Paraguay signs Pax Silica Declaration as 26th member of State Department AI supply-chain initiative

By Ifeoma Larkin

WASHINGTON — Paraguay on Friday became the 26th signatory to the Pax Silica Declaration, the State Department’s initiative on artificial intelligence and supply-chain security. Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano signed the document at a State Department ceremony with Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, the department said.

“The United States and Paraguay affirmed their commitment to leveraging Paraguay’s critical minerals and hydropower to build super intelligence infrastructure in the Americas,” the Office of the Spokesman said in a media note.

Paraguay’s Foreign Ministry said the two governments also stated a shared vision to deepen their economic partnership through joint work on security practices, infrastructure and incentives. Their goal, it said, is a comprehensive partnership “to build an economic security order” based on trust, technological complementarity and shared interests.

What Pax Silica is

The State Department calls Pax Silica its “flagship effort on AI and supply chain security.” Helberg and representatives of Japan, Israel, Australia, Singapore and South Korea launched it on Dec. 12, 2025. At the time, the department said the initiative advanced “President Donald J. Trump’s call for a new era of economic statecraft” and described it as “a positive-sum partnership” that “is not about isolating others.”

In the declaration, signatories commit to cooperate across “strategic stacks” of the technology supply chain, from minerals refining and energy to semiconductors, AI models and data centers. They also commit to reduce “excessive dependencies” and to address non-market practices, including overcapacity and dumping. “If the 20th century ran on oil and steel, the 21st century runs on compute and the minerals that feed it,” Helberg says in a quote on the program’s page.

The department’s Pax Silica page lists Paraguay among 25 signatories. The others from Latin America are Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama. Taiwan is listed as a non-signatory participant that has endorsed the declaration’s principles.

The signing follows a visit to Paraguay by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, during which the department announced a data-center partnership powered by the Itaipú hydroelectric dam between U.S. firm Crusoe and Paraguay’s Araico. The Inquisitor reported on Oct. 22 that the department’s fact sheet did not give the investment’s size. Neither Friday’s media note nor the Paraguayan statement named specific projects or dollar figures.

Requests for comment

The Inquisitor is seeking comment from the State Department’s Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, the Embassy of Paraguay, Crusoe, and the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees. This story will be updated with any responses.

Photo: Paraguayan Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano at the Department of State in Washington, March 26, 2024. Official State Department photo by Freddie Everett via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.