US and Israel Launch High-Level Tech Talks, Washington Concerned About Chinese Influence

US President Joe Biden (L) and Israel's Prime Minister Yair Lapid, take part in a virtual meeting with leaders of the I2U2 group, which includes, US, Israel, India, and the United Arab Emirates, at a hotel in Jerusalem, on July 14, 2022. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

The United States and Israel engaged in their first meeting of “U.S.-Israel Strategic High-Level Dialogue on Technology” initiative on Sept. 28 aimed at establishing a partnership on emerging and critical technologies between the nations.

The countries agreed to support research and implementation of a “trustworthy AI in healthcare,” including “fair AI-driven health systems” as well as boosting the ability of health researchers to test the impacts of medicines and treatments, according to a Sept. 30 White House Fact Sheet. They will also explore ways to use AI to develop new crop varieties, including seeds that have a “stronger tolerance to climate change.”

Next month, Israel and the United States plan on signing a Memorandum of Understanding seeking to strengthen cooperation in biomedical research like molecular and genomic medicine. They will work together on global health security and pandemic preparedness.

Climate change technology initiatives will include support for renewable hydrogen and solar energy, extreme weather prediction and disaster risk reduction initiatives, and cooperation on battery supply chains.

“The joint research with the US has been only 19 percent of Israel’s research with other countries, as opposed to 56 percent for Europe,” said Farkash-Hakohen, Israel’s minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, according to a Sept. 29 press release by Israel’s foreign ministry.

“Good partners and allies, like Israel and the US, need and can take significant steps to increase the scope of the joint research that constitutes the basis for high-tech and that is what we are currently doing.”

The Dialogue was agreed upon by President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in July. The Sept. 28 meeting was held in Washington between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Israeli national security advisor Dr. Eyal Hulata. The next meeting will be held in Israel in 2023.

Countering Chinese Influence

The push to deepen tech cooperation between Israel and the United States comes amid concerns about rising Chinese influence in the Middle Eastern nation’s technologies.

During the Trump administration, Washington pressured Israel to set up a review process aimed at allowing government officials to block deals in the case of national security concerns. While Israel did set up the review process in 2019, the tech industry was left out of it.

During the Sept. 28 meeting, the United States and Israel agreed on a plan to manage risks to their technology ecosystems, including investment screening.

A 2020 study by global policy think tank RAND Corporation found that the security risks of Chinese investments and construction could affect the relationship between the United States and Israel.

It pointed out that the interests of China and Israel in the Middle East are incompatible and warned that Chinese Communist Party investments and construction projects in Israel could result in cyber espionage as well as the leaking of sensitive technology.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Ehud Levy, a general partner at Canaan Partners Israel and also a partner at China’s Lenovo Capital, said that even though Washington has not succeeded in getting Israeli startups to fully adopt its policy agenda, the United States has succeeded in convincing several entrepreneurs to pick sides.

“If you have a term sheet from a Chinese investor and you have a term sheet from a US investor, the CEO is going for the safe option,” Levy said. “It’s not like a governmental guidance or anything like that. It’s purely a commercial decision.”