India, US to sign pact for bilateral cooperation in critical mineral sector

New Delhi: India and the United States will soon sign a pact to set a framework for bilateral cooperation in the critical mineral sector.

The India-US Critical Mineral Memorandum of Understanding is expected to be signed on Thursday when Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his counterpart Gina Raimondo will co-chair the 6th bilateral commercial dialogue in Washington DC.

The MoU will help expand bilateral collaboration to secure resilient critical minerals supply chains through enhanced technical assistance and greater commercial cooperation, a source in New Delhi said.

India relies on imports to meet its requirement for critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, phosphorus, and potash.

India in June 2023 joined the US-led Minerals Security Partnership aimed at reducing dependency on China and accelerating the development of diverse and sustainable critical energy minerals supply chains globally while agreeing to certain principles, including environmental, social, and governance standards. A list of 19 MSP projects has been shared for consultation and India’s participation in MSP projects. India has shown its interest in three MSP projects.

During their recent meeting at Wilmington in Delaware, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden reaffirmed their commitment to accelerate the development of diverse and sustainable supply chains for critical minerals under the Minerals Security Partnership targeting strategic projects along the value chain.