The United States and India formalized a Critical Minerals Framework on May 26, covering the full lifecycle of rare earth and critical mineral supply chains. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar signed the agreement in New Delhi, with over $30 billion earmarked for investments and related projects.
The deal is designed to reduce both nations’ dependence on single-source suppliers for the minerals that power everything from electric vehicle batteries to semiconductor chips to defense systems.
What the framework actually covers
The scope spans exploration, mining, processing, recycling, investment, and financing, essentially every link in the chain from dirt to finished product.
The agreement also explicitly targets what it calls “coercive market practices,” a diplomatic way of describing the leverage that dominant mineral suppliers can exert during geopolitical disputes.
