India and the United States on Tuesday signed a strategic agreement on critical minerals and rare earths, deepening cooperation in securing supply chains for key resources essential to semiconductors, electric vehicles, clean energy and defence technologies, amid growing global concerns over dependence on China-dominated supplies.
The pact was signed during the Quad Foreign Ministers' meet, in External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's presence.
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"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," said EAM Jaishankar.
