Latest news with #CriticalMineralsInitiative
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
2 days ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Quad countries are major maritime partners, says US State dept official
US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mignon Houston while speaking about the situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea said that the Quad members are major maritime partners. Houston said that these countries understand the maritime issues that these countries face. She said, "We heard from the four Quad partners in the joint statement that there are serious concerns about the situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea... These four partners have focused on the fact that we want to see respect for the rule of the sea and freedom of navigation... The Quad countries are major maritime partners. They understand the vulnerabilities when freedom of navigation is not respected, which encompass illegal fishing, piracy, and activities related to transnational criminal organisations and the trafficking of drugs." She added, "These are scores that are hurting the United States and our Quad partners and those in the Indo-Pacific. We're focused on ensuring that there is no coercion or force in this area, and that we see full respect in this area for the rule of the sea... It was listed twice in the joint statement, the unity, the commitment from the Quad partners to focus on maritime security." The Quad countries have launched a Critical Minerals Initiative, which will focus particularly on mineral recovery, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday. Foreign Ministers of the Quad countries also discussed regional issues in the Indo-Pacific and the Israel-Iran conflict. Addressing a press conference here, Jaishankar said the discussions were largely devoted to enhancing delivery on various initiatives and projects. "We launched the Quad Critical Minerals initiative and this would be focused particularly on the mineral recovery, which is very important for all of us. Second, there is the Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network that was launched earlier in the year and we decided it will hold its field training exercise very there is the Quad at Sea Ship Observer mission. This involves our coast there is a maritime legal dialogue at the expert level which will be held virtually later this month," Jaishankar said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Quad launches new critical minerals initiative during Washington Summit
Washington DC: The four-nation Quad grouping announced a new Critical Minerals Initiative during a meeting of their Foreign Ministers in Washington on Tuesday. This comes just after China - which dominates the processing and supply of key critical minerals - imposed restrictions on the export of seven rare earth metals in April 2025. Rare earths are a subset of critical minerals, which are elements and substances that are crucial to national and economic security given their importance in manufacturing and defence sectors. External affairs minister S Jaishankar meets foreign minister of Australia, Penny Wong, on the sidelines of the Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting, in Washington DC on Wednesday. (@DrSJaishankar X) 'We are deeply concerned about the abrupt constriction and future reliability of key supply chains, specifically for critical minerals. This includes the use of non-market policies and practices for critical minerals, certain derivative products, and mineral processing technology,' the Quad Foreign Ministers said in a joint statement. Beijing's restrictions were imposed in response to President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States. These restrictions were expected to cause serious disruption to America's defence and automotives sectors, which rely heavily on China's supply. 'We underscore the importance of diversified and reliable global supply chains. Reliance on any one country for processing and refining critical minerals and derivative goods production exposes our industries to economic coercion, price manipulation, and supply chain disruptions, which further harms our economic and national security,' said the Quad Foreign Ministers in their joint statement. 'We are launching today the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, an ambitious expansion of our partnership to strengthen economic security and collective resilience by collaborating to secure and diversify critical minerals supply chains,' they added. There have been efforts to tackle the critical minerals challenge in the past. In February 2025, India and the United States launched the Strategic Mineral Recovery Initiative, which aims to recover and process critical minerals like lithium, cobalt and rare earths from heavy industries like coal mining. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to America earlier this year, the two countries agreed to push research, development and investment across the entire critical minerals value chain. Washington and New Delhi are also key members of the Minerals Security Partnership, a multinational initiative launched in 2022 to develop new critical minerals supply chains amid concerns of China's dominance in this sector. 14 nations - including Australia, Canada, France and Germany - and the European Union are part of the MSP. The grouping has established a Finance Network to channel funding from national development finance institutions toward key critical minerals projects.
