Over the course of 4 h on Wednesday morning, researchers and policymakers from India and the US deliberated on ways the two countries could work together to circumvent China’s choke hold on rare earth elements, which are critical for consumer and defense technologies.
The Indo-US Advanced Materials R&D Forum, held virtually during the American Chemical Society Fall 2025 meeting, was attended by high-level government officials, and scientists from academia, federal agencies, national laboratories, and industry.
The forum was a platform for stakeholders to share updates on their research and manufacturing capabilities in the rare earth mineral sector and to identify chances to collaborate. And it underlined high-level political support for researchers in the US and India to work together despite recent tension between the countries, given the Donald J. Trump administration’s proposed tariffs of up to 50% on India.
Powerful magnets made from rare earth elements (REEs) such as neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium are critical for motors used in electric vehicles and drones, computer hard drives, and military guidance and radar systems.
China supplies about 90% of the world’s REEs. Last year, the US and India imported 75% and 80% of their rare earth magnets from China, respectively.
This monopoly gives China the upper hand in trade negotiations. In April, Beijing restricted exports of seven REEs and magnets to the US in response to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products. Beijing also imposed similar restrictions on India, putting the latter country’s industry and policy leaders on edge. But China lifted the restrictions this week.
To remove uncertainty in future rare earth supplies, India and the US want to break their reliance on China by boosting domestic production of rare earths. “We need to innovate, invest, and manufacture our ways towards resilient and secure supply chains. Today is an effort to build stronger habits of cooperation,” said Ricky Gill, special assistant to the president and senior director for South and Central Asian Affairs at the US National Security Council.
The forum was an extension of the US-India TRUST (Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology) initiative launched in February 2025 after a meeting between Trump and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. The initiative aims to support joint projects across several technology areas in the consumer and defense space, including critical minerals. These collaborations will ensure that the “technologies of tomorrow can belong to free society,” Gill said.
Mines all over the world yield rare earth ores. But processing ores to convert them to metals and to separate the elements is costly and complex, as is making magnets. China controls the market after having spent decades honing and scaling up rare earth processing capabilities with substantial government support.
India and the US are trying to catch up. At the forum, representatives from organizations such as the US Department of Energy and India’s Non-Ferrous Materials Technology Development Center detailed what that entails. Research groups in both countries, for example, are pursuing new rare earth processing and separation technologies, extracting rare earths from mine tailings and coal waste, and recycling the valuable elements from things such as spent magnets and electronic waste.
Instead of competing on rare earths, India and the US would benefit from combining their R&D strengths and developing these technologies together, said Lekhan Thakkar, the Indian National Security Council Secretariat. He said a joint rare earth R&D strategy would “increase manufacturing capacity and jobs in both countries in addition to fostering innovation.”
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