A US-led critical minerals alliance presents India with opportunities as well as challenges

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Critical Minerals Ministerial Meeting convened in Washington D.C. last week underscored the extent to which resource security has become central to contemporary geopolitics.

Hosted by US secretary of state Marco Rubio, with vice-president J.D. Vance delivering the keynote address, the gathering brought together representatives from 54 countries and the European Commission. The presence of key stakeholders, including India, Japan, Australia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, reflected a growing recognition that access to critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, rare-earth elements and graphite is no longer merely an economic concern but a strategic imperative.

At its core, the meeting was a response to the structural vulnerabilities embedded in global supply chains, particularly the overwhelming dominance of China in mining, processing and refining critical minerals. Beijing’s control of more than 60% of rare-earth production and its recent willingness to weaponize export restrictions on minerals such as gallium and germanium have sharpened anxieties in Washington and allied capitals. The Trump administration’s framing of this challenge—as a strategic liability comparable to the influence of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries over oil markets, but with far greater implications for high-tech, clean energy and defence sectors—reveals how deeply resource geopolitics is now intertwined with great-power competition.

The ministerial thus reflected a realist recalibration of economic policy. Markets, left to themselves, have produced outcomes that favour scale, subsidies and state action, areas where China enjoys significant advantages. As Vance argued, the flooding