‘Goal to have enduring supply chain’: Rubio calls for multilateral solutions at Critical Minerals Ministerial | World News

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized the importance of economic security through critical minerals and the need for allies to come together not only to correct past mistakes, but also to leverage collective talent and innovation to ensure diversity and affordability in supply chains.

He made these statements at the opening of the Critical Minerals Ministerial Meeting hosted by the USA.

“We gather here today as the first step in righting the mistake, bringing our collective talent and innovation together,” Rubio said.

The US Secretary of State highlighted how unpretentious mining has become in terms of computer design. “As we embraced the new and dazzling, we outsourced what seemed old and outdated… and one day we realized we were outsourcing our economic security and our future. We were at the mercy of whoever controlled the supply chains of these minerals.”

He described it as an international situation requiring multilateral solutions.

Drawing attention to the importance of critical minerals, Rubio said, “They strengthen our infrastructure, our industry and our national defense. Our goal is to have a global supply chain that is permanent and accessible to everyone, every nation, at an affordable price. This is the top priority of this administration.”

He talked about the importance of critical minerals in US domestic policy and pointed out President Trump’s stance that economic security is national security. He reminded us of the Pax Silica partnership that the USA launched last year.
He described how the discovery of critical minerals in 1949 led to the jet age, the space age and the computer age.

Rubio recalled Henry Kissinger’s meeting fifty years ago, when the world was roiled under a global crisis caused by energy supply and market disruptions and “oil access became a tool of political pressure.”
“Today, we return after 50 years with the hope of advancing the bilateral critical minerals framework agreement towards the same purpose on this front,” he said.

He highlighted the various roles convened countries can play, from using their purchasing power as consumers to refining minerals if they do not have access to them “to create a more resilient and diverse global market.”

Rubio said that although the initiative started with the United States, it calls for it to be an international global initiative where like-minded countries see a variety of critical minerals and safe and resilient supply chains around the world for economies to thrive “without them being used against us or causing any disruption that would undermine collective economic security.”

US Vice President JD Vance, who made the opening speech earlier, emphasized the importance of critical minerals and said, “There is nothing more real than oil, and I would like to add to this, there is nothing more real than critical minerals.”

In his speech, the US Vice President pointed out that this initiative is a place where the alliance can help each other, called for making prices more predictable to support supply chains, and underlined the importance of facing problems together.

The United States is hosting the inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, D.C., bringing together delegations from more than 50 countries to advance cooperation on securing and diversifying global critical mineral supply chains, according to a preliminary announcement released by the Office of the Spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State.

On Monday, ahead of the Cabinet, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Project Vault, a supply chain security initiative that will create the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, an independently managed public-private partnership designed to store essential raw materials in facilities across the country.

Rubio chairs the department, and the meeting is being described as a historic effort to build collective momentum for cooperation to secure critical minerals needed for technological innovation, economic growth and national security.