On the sidelines of the 11th Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, India and the United States on Tuesday firmed up an important framework for cooperation in ensuring steady supplies of critical minerals, in a move that follows growing concerns over China’s export controls of rare earth minerals and strategic metals vital for technology supply chains.

Apart from this, another framework agreement on critical minerals was also signed among the four Quad partner countries — Australia, India, Japan and the United States.

“The Framework aims to deepen India-U.S. cooperation across the critical minerals and rare earths supply chain, including mining, processing, recycling and related investments. It seeks to strengthen resilient and diversified supply chains, while promoting collaboration in financing and effective management of critical minerals and rare earths scrap,” said an announcement on the “Framework” titled “Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths”.

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An understanding of this nature between India and the U.S. has been under consideration at least since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington D.C. in February 2025, when secure and resilient supply routes for critical minerals were considered a “shared strategic priority”, said the official press note on the matter.

The agreement was built upon continued engagements between the two countries, including India becoming a signatory to the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative on February 20, 2026.

A statement issued by the U.S. Embassy said the United States is “mobilising unprecedented resources to secure critical supply chains, supporting projects with more than $30 billion in letters of interest, investments, loans and other support in partnership with the private sector”.

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“These coordinated efforts span domestic and international projects, strengthening U.S. national security and economic competitiveness,” the statement said.

Under the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative Framework, the four countries aim to mobilise around $20 billion in government and private-sector support to establish stable supply chains for critical minerals. The understanding will help in nurturing projects on critical minerals that are located in ‘Quad partner countries’ and are ‘operated by companies headquartered in Quad partner countries’, thereby blocking supply chain gaps in critical minerals.

The initiatives are aiming to deal with the shortfall of critical metals in global markets that intensified after China imposed export controls on Rare Earth Elements (REE) in 2025, after the United States’ imposition of tariffs on a large number of partner countries.

Both the India-U.S. and Quad-level frameworks are expected to allow for greater alignment and harmonisation of domestic laws and regulations to facilitate easier access to the supply chain. These agreements are also expected to help partner countries to tighten controls to deal with national security requirements.

“Quad partners intend to work together to improve the recovery and use of critical minerals from e-waste and other scrap materials to enhance the supply chain and promote recycling of contained critical minerals within Quad partner and like-minded countries,” said a statement.

“Quad partners intend to work together to improve the recovery and use of critical minerals from e-waste and other scrap materials to enhance the supply chain and promote recycling of contained critical minerals within Quad partner and like-minded countries,” a statement said.