Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India and the US on May 26 signed a strategic agreement to deepen cooperation in critical minerals and rare earths which constitute key materials for making semiconductors, electric vehicles, solar panels and high-tech defence products. The pact comes in the backdrop of growing global concerns on China’s dominance over these critical inputs which gives the communist giant the power to disrupt global supply chains.
The agreement was signed during the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in the presence of External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
“We are today signing a bilateral India-US framework on securing supplies of mining and processing of critical minerals and rare earths. This is something we have also discussed today at the Quad meeting and whether we are doing it bilaterally, or in the Quad format or as a larger gathering of like-minded nations, it is something very timely and critical,” Jaishankar said. He said the framework aims to deepen cooperation across the entire critical minerals and rare earth supply chain, including mining, processing, recycling and related investment.
Rubio pointed out that the agreement has been signed because India and the US “have a strategic and shared interest in the fact that vibrant innovation economies such as ours cannot afford to leave the foundational materials of these industries vulnerable to single source monopolies that could deny us these things, not just in a time of conflict, but as a leverage point contrary to our sovereign national interests.”
