4 min readNew DelhiMay 26, 2026 06:01 PM IST
India and the US signed a bilateral “critical minerals framework” on Tuesday, as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio before the latter wrapped up his four-day visit. This is significant since there are legitimate concerns over China’s export curbs on rare earth which are crucial for global technology supply chains in the manufacturing of cars to phones, missiles to planes.
This is a key takeaway from the bilateral engagement between Jaishankar and Rubio, since both sides are working towards repairing ties after a challenging year in bilateral relations. This is also important as it comes days after US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing.
At the signing ceremony on Tuesday, Jaishankar said, “We are today signing a bilateral India-US framework on securing supply of mining and processing of critical minerals and rare-earths. This is something which we have also discussed today at the Quad meeting. And whether we’re doing it bilaterally, whether we’re doing it as a Quad format, or in fact as a larger gathering of like-minded nations, it is clearly something very timely, something very important, something very critical.”
“This particular framework aims to deepen our cooperation across the entire critical minerals and rare-earth supply chain, including mining, processing, recycling, and related investments. It will certainly strengthen resilient and diversified supply chains. It will help us to collaborate in financing and in the effective management of critical minerals and rare-earths,” he said.
Rubio said, “I’ve spoken often during my time here over the last few days about the strategic alliance between the United States and India and how important that is for our national interest in the United States, and today is a tangible example of it. We are two countries who have a strategic interest in ensuring reliable long-term access to critical minerals and supply chains that are important for our innovation economy. And today’s a tangible result of that; it’s tangible evidence of why we are strategic allies. This is a very important step.”
The US embassy said that the initiative marks a “milestone” in the strategic partnership between the two nations to ensure that the foundational elements required for advanced technology and energy are available within trusted networks.
This agreement builds upon the foundational groundwork laid in February 2026 during high-level meetings in Washington, D.C., where Rubio launched the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (FORGE). Through this framework, the US and India will engage in international efforts to protect sensitive supply chains from “coercive market practices and reduce our collective vulnerability to single-source monopolies”, it said, alluding to China’s practices.
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It said the US government is mobilising unprecedented resources to secure critical mineral supply chains, supporting projects with more than $30 billion in letters of interest, investments, loans, and other support in partnership with the private sector. “These investments, along with Pax Silica and our reinvigorated diplomatic and commercial engagement are having a multiplier effect, mobilizing private capital many times greater than government outlays, which will generate billions of dollars in new projects to secure our supply chains,” it said.
This framework, it said, sets a path toward reliable and resilient mineral supply chains, reinforcing key objectives set established by US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US-India Joint Leaders’ Statement.
Rubio recalled that the groundwork for this was laid on February 4 when the critical minerals forum was held in Washington DC. “It gained momentum later that month when India signed onto Pax Silica. It was one of the first and early member and signatories, and now today, because we both 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.”
