India, US ink agreement on critical minerals exploration, extraction

Analysts say it will help the nations' efforts to diversify supply chains away from China

- Nirmala Ganapathy

India has signed an agreement with the US to cooperate on critical minerals exploration and extraction, which will help move the needle in the two countries' efforts to create an alternative to the existing supply chains dominated by China, said analysts.

The Memorandum of Understanding to Expand and Diversify Critical Minerals Supply Chains was signed on Oct 3 during Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's visit to Washington, as India and the US seek to deepen their strategic partnership in the face of an increasingly assertive China.

Mr Goyal was attending the 6th Commercial Dialogue, a ministerial-level annual meeting to discuss trade and investment policies, apart from exploring potential areas of private-sector collaboration.

This agreement is the second inked by the two countries on critical minerals. The first was signed in 2023 to identify opportunities for companies from both countries to collaborate in this area, among other things.

A US Commerce Department statement issued after talks between Mr Goyal and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said that priority areas under the latest agreement would be "identifying equipment, services, policies and best practices" for critical minerals exploration, extraction, processing and refining, recycling and recovery in both countries.

Mr Goyal, speaking at an event after the official talks, said that going forward, the two countries would also look into jointly tapping resources in other countries. He cited the potential in mineral-rich Africa and also in South America, which has the world's largest reserves of copper and lithium, as examples.