Critical Minerals Diplomacy: Securing India's Clean-Energy and Defence Supply Chains

Critical minerals — lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earth elements and graphite among them — are essential inputs for clean energy technology, electric vehicle batteries, semiconductors and defence systems, yet India imports the bulk of what it needs, creating a strategic vulnerability that policymakers are now actively working to address.

Key initiatives include the National Critical Mineral Mission launched in 2024, which spans exploration, processing, recycling and overseas asset acquisition; KABIL (Khanij Bidesh India Limited), a joint venture of NALCO, HCL and MECL formed specifically to secure overseas mineral assets, including lithium blocks in Argentina; India's participation in the US-led Mineral Security Partnership, a grouping of like-minded nations working to diversify supply chains away from overwhelming dependence on China; and a formal Critical Minerals list identifying 30 minerals as critical for India, including lithium, cobalt and various rare earths.

The geopolitical stakes are significant because China dominates global rare-earth processing capacity, controlling an estimated 85–90% of the world's output, which creates a serious chokepoint risk for any country dependent on Chinese supply chains. India's push mirrors the broader "friend-shoring" trend visible among democracies worldwide, which are collectively trying to build alternative, trusted supply networks. For Mains, this theme connects naturally to Aatmanirbhar Bharat, India's net-zero-by-2070 energy transition commitment, and the broader concept of strategic autonomy in an increasingly multipolar global order where mineral access is becoming as strategically important as energy access once was.

The single most important number to retain here is China's roughly 85 to 90 percent share of global rare-earth processing, since it explains almost every other fact in this topic: why KABIL exists, why the Mineral Security Partnership was formed, and why India's Critical Minerals list was drawn up in the first place. Anchoring the entire theme around this one chokepoint fact makes it far easier to reconstruct the rest of the answer under exam time pressure.