Welcome back to the podcast, bribes, swindle, or steel.

I'm Alexandra Ragi.

Today we're discussing Siphyas, that is, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United

States.

My guest is Darshak Dahlakia.

Darshak is a partner in Deckerets, Washington, D.C. office where he focuses his practice

primarily on international trade issues, including matters of national security and foreign policy.

Darsak, thank you so much for joining me.

Oh, thank you for having me, Alexandra.

I helped you out with the acronym for Siphyas, which you live and breathe, but will be new to

some of our listeners. But can you take us through the importance of this, the application, and what people should know about Sipheus.

Sipheus is an interagency committee that's comprised of nine members.

It's chaired by the Secretary of Treasury, but it also has representatives from the Department of Defense,

Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security, and many others.

Its primary task is to evaluate foreign direct investment inbound into the U.S. to determine

whether that investment could potentially have a negative impact on U.S. national security

interests or U.S. critical

infrastructure. We'll get into it, but those terms can be sort of as broad as whatever administration

in power wants them to be. It's not just when a non-U.S. company is looking to buy a U.S.

defense manufacturer, for example, where the national security implications are clear. But it's been used

pretty broadly, especially in recent years, to protect U.S. economic security as well, particularly

in high technology sectors where the U.S. enjoys some, at least has some perceived technological

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