Washington, DC — The United States will host the first Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department this week, convened by Senator Marco Rubio and bringing delegations from more than 50 countries to coordinate efforts to secure and diversify global critical mineral supply chains. India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is attending and is scheduled for a one-on-one meeting with Secretary Rubio on Tuesday.
The three-day meeting aims to strengthen strategic supply lines for minerals deemed essential to technological innovation, economic competitiveness and national security. The State Department described the ministerial as historic and said it is intended to build international momentum for collaboration on resilient critical-mineral supply chains that underpin clean energy transitions and technological leadership.
The ministerial comes as India–US engagement accelerates across trade, energy and strategic areas. In a parallel development, US President Donald Trump announced a trade agreement with India on Monday after months of tariff-related tension. Those tensions followed Washington’s imposition of 50 percent duties on some Indian goods in August 2025, with half of that penalty linked to India’s purchases of crude oil from Russia.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed he had spoken with President Trump and welcomed a reduction in US tariffs on Made-in-India products to 18 percent, thanking Indians for the outcome. President Trump called Modi a close friend and said their talks covered trade and efforts to end the war in Ukraine. According to Trump, India agreed to stop buying Russian oil and to raise purchases from the United States and potentially Venezuela. He said the US would lower its reciprocal tariff from 25 percent to 18 percent and that India would move toward eliminating tariffs and non-tariff barriers on US goods, with commitments to increase US energy, technology, agricultural and other purchases totaling more than half a trillion dollars.
Against that backdrop, Jaishankar’s US visit from February 2–4 will include discussions at the Critical Minerals Ministerial on supply-chain resilience, clean energy transition and strategic cooperation on critical minerals, along with meetings with senior US officials.
Earlier this month, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent convened a Finance Ministerial in Washington to examine ways to strengthen and diversify critical mineral supply chains, with a particular focus on rare-earth elements. That meeting included senior officials from Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and the United Kingdom; India was represented by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
India–US cooperation has also continued on defence: a US Congressional delegation led by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, accompanied by US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, met India’s Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh on January 27 to discuss deeper defence-industry collaboration and to advance bilateral military ties, including the recently concluded 10-year Major Defence Partnership Framework Agreement.
This article is based on a syndicated feed and published as received.
