Australia, India invited to G7 critical minerals meeting

Australia – (Special Correspondent / Web Desk) – The United States Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, announced that Australia and several other countries will join a G7 finance ministers’ meeting in Washington on Monday to discuss critical minerals. Bessent said he had been pushing for a dedicated meeting on the topic since last summer’s G7 summit, and the finance ministers had already held a virtual session in December.

India has also been invited, though it’s not yet confirmed if it will attend, Bessent told Reuters after visiting a Winnebago Industries engineering lab near Minneapolis. It is not clear which other nations have received invitations.

Participated in @G7 FMM Outreach Session on Energy Security and Critical Minerals, and put forth 🇮🇳’s perspective.

➡️ Spoke about the need on both issues to mitigate dependence, strengthen predictability and build resilience. Greater international cooperation is the only way… pic.twitter.com/q05wQJgxOp

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) November 12, 2025

The G7, which includes the United States, Britain, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and the European Union, relies heavily on rare earth minerals from China. Last June, the group agreed on a plan to secure their supply chains and strengthen their economies.

Australia signed an agreement with the US in October aimed at countering China’s dominance in critical minerals. It included an $8.5 billion project pipeline and leveraged Australia’s proposed strategic reserve, which will supply metals like rare earths and lithium that are vulnerable to disruption.

Canberra has said it has subsequently received interest from Europe, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

China dominates the critical minerals supply chain, refining between 47 per cent and 87pc of copper, lithium, cobalt, graphite and rare earths, according to the International Energy Agency. These minerals are used in defence technologies, semiconductors, renewable energy components, batteries and refining processes.

Western countries have sought to reduce their dependence on China’s critical minerals in recent years, given moves by China to impose strict export controls on rare earths.

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Monday’s meeting comes days after reports that China had begun restricting exports to Japanese companies of rare earths and powerful magnets containing them, as well as banning exports of dual-use items to the Japanese military.

Bessent said China was still living up to its commitments to purchase US soybeans and ship critical minerals to US firms.