Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has announced that India and the US have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on critical minerals that will pave the way for cooperation between the Indian Ministry of Mines with its US counterpart to secure the supply chains in these materials that are critical to the production of clean energy technologies and equipment.
The MoU will also pave the way for the two countries to launch joint projects in a third country and seek investments from other countries, the Commerce Minister said at a news conference to review his meetings with US officials.
The MoU was signed on Thursday at the sixth India-US commercial dialogue that was hosted by the US and chaired by Commerce Minister Goyal and his US counterpart Gina Raimondo.
“We executed the MoU on critical minerals to keep the supply chains open and for greater engagement between the Ministry of Mines in India and the US government,” the Commerce Minister told reporters at the news conference.
These critical minerals include lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite, rare earth elements, and copper, which are critical to the production of clean energy technologies.
India is the only developing economy in an elite group of countries called the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) that includes the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Sweden and the European Union, which recently launched a financial vehicle to rally and mobilize public and private sector for funding in this sector.
“We executed the MoU on critical minerals to keep the supply chains open and for greater engagement between the Ministry of Mines in India and the US government,” the Commerce Minister told reporters at the news conference.