India, Australia Invited to G7 Talks on Critical Minerals

• U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a G7 finance ministers’ meeting in Washington to discuss critical minerals, with Australia, India, and other countries invited
• The G7 aims to secure supply chains for rare earths and other critical minerals, reducing dependence on China
• Australia has partnered with the U.S. on an $8.5 billion project and strategic reserve for critical minerals

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has revealed that India, Australia and a few other countries are going to be present in the coming Monday's meeting of Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers in Washington to talk about critical minerals.

Bessent, who had been pushing for a specific talk on the matter since last summer's G7 leaders' summit, mentioned that the ministers conducted a virtual meeting about the topic already in December and India has been invited as well.

The G7, which is made up of the United States, Britain, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and the European Union, is quite dependent on China for its supply of rare earths and other critical minerals. The group had agreed upon an action plan in June last year to secure supply chains and bolster their economies.

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In October, Australia and the U.S. made a deal that included an $8.5 billion project pipeline to secure the metals like rare earths and lithium, and upon that, the establishment of a strategic reserve aimed at opposing China’s control over critical minerals. The project has attracted Europe, Japan, South Korea and Singapore’s interest ever since.

China has the lion's share of the critical minerals supply chain, refining the vast majority, i.e., 47–87%, of metals like copper, lithium, cobalt, graphite, and rare earths that are of utmost importance to defense, semiconductors, renewable energy, and batteries among others.

Western countries have tried to decrease their reliance on China due to the latter's restrictions on rare earths export. Bessent remarked that notwithstanding these difficulties, China is still honoring its commitments of buying U.S. soybeans and supplying minerals to American companies. This meeting comes after China was reported to have limited exports of rare earths and dual-use items to Japan.