U.S., Allies Aim to Break China’s Critical Minerals Dominance

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The United States has formed a 'minerals bloc' uniting 55 countries worldwide to counter China's monopoly on rare earths.

The U.S. Trump administration announced on the 4th the launch of the '(Forum for On-shoring and Resourcing Geostrategic Elements (“FORGE”) with 55 countries worldwide to respond to China's monopoly on the supply chains for rare earths and critical minerals.

Representatives from more than fifty countries—from Angola to Uzbekistan—met to lay the foundations of a new critical minerals value chain designed to break China’s dominant market position. The new initiative follows the Pax Silica, an earlier plurilateral initiative for secure artificial intelligence (AI) supply chains.

The Trump administration announced plans to deploy tens of billions of dollars in public capital—taking equity stakes in and extending credit to strategic firms—in an effort to reengineer entire global supply chains. In this vein, it rolled out a new U.S. Export-Import Bank-led effort to establish a domestic strategic reserve for critical minerals, Project Vault, to spur production and insulate producers from future supply shocks.

Countries listed as participating in FORGE. (Geographies of Cooperation Atlas).