India and the United States on Tuesday signed a bilateral framework aimed at securing the supply, mining, and processing of critical minerals and rare earth elements. The announcement was made by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. "We are today signing a bilateral India-US framework on securing supplies of mining and processing of critical minerals and rare earths," he said.
Commenting on this, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he's glad both countries were able to sign this, as it provides a tangible example of the strategic partnership between the United States and India.
"I have spoken often during my time here over the last few days about the strategic alliance between the United States and India and how important that is for our national interest in the United States. And today is a tangible example of it. We are two countries that have strategic interests in ensuring reliable long-term access to critical minerals and supply chains that are important for our innovation economy... The groundwork was laid for this on the 4th of February when you joined us at the Critical Minerals Forum that we hosted in Washington, D.C. It gained momentum later that month when India signed on to Paxilla... and now today, because we both have a strategic and shared interest in the fact that vibrant innovation economies such as ours cannot afford to leave the foundational materials of these industries vulnerable to single source monopolies that could deny us these things, not just in a time of conflict, but as a leverage point contrary to our sovereign national interests," Rubio said.
Quad grouping unveils new measures to boost maritime surveillance
Meanwhile, the Quad grouping has unveiled new measures to boost maritime surveillance and port infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific against the backdrop of China's growing military posturing in the region.
The new measures were announced following a meeting of the grouping's foreign ministers in New Delhi. The meeting was chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.
"Much of the discussions and indeed the bilateral exchanges were devoted to the current state of the world," Jaishankar said at the end of the meeting.
Relevance to Indo-Pacific
Naturally, the focus of the deliberations was on issues of relevance to the Indo-Pacific, he said.
"Because we are four maritime democracies located at different ends of the Indo-Pacific, the exchange of perspectives was an exercise of considerable value. We spent some time on the question of safe and unimpeded maritime commerce and reaffirmed the significance of scrupulously observing international law," the minister said.
Jaishankar said a free and open Indo-Pacific has many dimensions and facets and the Quad meeting took stock of the progress in many of them.
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