Minerals Security Partnership: India joins the critical minerals club. Here’s why this is important

Subject :International Relations

Section: Groupings

Context:

India became a part of the coveted critical minerals club — the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) — headed by the United States.

Other initiatives include:

Recently, the US and the UK signed the Atlantic Declaration to begin negotiations on a critical minerals agreement, which would allow some UK firms to access tax credits available under the US Inflation Reduction Act.

Mineral Security Partnership (MSP):

Initiated by the USA in 2022.
It is also known as the critical minerals alliance.
MSP is a strategic grouping of 13 member states including Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, US, the European Union, Italy and now India.
It aims to catalyse public and private investment in critical mineral supply chains globally.
Countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have abundant reserves of critical minerals are not part of this strategic grouping formed by US.
India’s inclusion can create space for other countries to be part of the partnership and reduce their dependence on China by building a robust and reliable supply chain of raw materials needed for the clean energy transition.
Cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, nickel and rare earth elements are these common strategic mineral resources that are demand-intensive due to their strategic uses in wind turbines, batteries of electric vehicles and other critical emerging technologies for green transition.
Objectives of the MSP include:
- Strengthened information sharing between partner countries
- Increased investment in secure critical minerals supply chains
- Developed recycling technologies

Significance for India:

India’s inclusion in the club is vital for India to fulfill its ambition of shifting towards sustainable mobility through large, reliable fleets of electric public and private transport.
Securing the supply chain of critical minerals will also provide the country with the necessary push towards a concerted indigenous electronics and semiconductor manufacturing.
The inclusion will pave the way for equitable sharing of resources across the globe.

India’s involvement in other mineral partnership forums/agreements:

India is already a member of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development, which supports the advancement of good mining governance.
India and Australia have already signed the Critical Minerals Investment Partnership with the aim towards investment in critical minerals projects to develop supply chains between the two countries.