US-led essential mineral club welcomes India: Likely to boost EV and electronics

The US-led Mineral Security Partnership (MSP), a grouping of 14 nations, has welcomed India into its ranks. The MSP intends to spur public and private investment in the world's most important mineral supply chains.

India was welcomed into the grouping in a joint statement between India and the US that was released early on Friday. It reiterated the two governments' commitment to "work together to ensure that our respective markets are well-supplied with the essential critical minerals" and "to hasten bilateral collaboration to secure resilient critical minerals supply chains."

According to the joint statement, "the US with enthusiasm welcomes India as the latest partner in the MSP, to speed up the development of diverse and sustainable supply chains for essential energy minerals worldwide while agreeing to the MSP's guiding principles, which includes environmental, social, and governance standards.

The inclusion of India becomes important in light of the fact that a major component of New Delhi's growth plan is driven by an ambitious shift in the mobility sector that involves the conversion of a sizable portion of both public and private transportation to electric vehicles. This emphasises the necessity of securing the supply of crucial minerals, together with a strong drive for semiconductor and electronics production.

Given that there was considerable unease within certain parts of the Union government over the country not finding a place in the strategic partnership that is also intended to reduce dependency on China for securing critical minerals, the proposal to onboard India comes after a strong diplomatic push mounted by New Delhi. 

According to reports, the MSP considered 150 or so potential projects for collaboration before selecting twelve for further consideration. These projects include developing battery materials, fostering a vital forum for cooperation in the mining and metals industries, and jointly building a processing facility for minerals in South America. While there was a lot of interest in India joining the organisation, according to official sources, there was also discussion about the trade-offs involved among the government's various departments. Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea, Sweden, United Kingdom, European Commission, Italy, and currently India are all members of the MSP in addition to the United States.