UAE and US formalise a strategic framework to secure critical minerals and rare earths supply chains, boosting investment, resilience, and cooperation across mining, processing, and advanced industrial sectors….reports Asian Lite News
The United Arab Emirates and the United States have taken a significant step towards strengthening global supply chains for critical minerals and rare earths, signing a new bilateral framework on the sidelines of the US Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, DC. The agreement reflects a shared strategic priority to secure materials that are vital for defence, advanced technologies, clean energy systems, and long-term industrial growth.
The framework was signed by Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, UAE Minister of Investment, and Jacob Helberg, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, during the high-level ministerial gathering hosted by the US Department of State. The event brought together more than 50 international partners to advance cooperation on building secure, resilient, and diversified critical minerals supply chains at a time of rapidly rising global demand.
Supply chain security
At its core, the framework establishes a coordinated UAE-US approach to accelerating the secure supply of critical minerals and rare earths. It leverages existing strengths on both sides, combining the United States’ industrial demand capabilities and stockpiling infrastructure with the UAE’s strategic reserves and growing investment footprint across global supply chains.
The agreement provides a structured platform to mobilise public and private capital across the entire value chain, from mining and separation to processing, recycling, and downstream manufacturing. Both countries committed to supporting investment through a wide range of mechanisms, including financing, guarantees, equity investments, insurance instruments, regulatory facilitation, and long-term offtake arrangements.
Importantly, the UAE and the US will jointly identify priority projects that address key supply chain gaps. Within six months of signing the framework, the two sides intend to take concrete steps to provide financing to projects located in each country, with an emphasis on generating end products for buyers in both markets.
Investment, trade and market resilience
Beyond project financing, the framework outlines cooperation to accelerate and streamline permitting processes, consistent with applicable national laws, to reduce delays that often constrain minerals development. It also includes provisions aimed at strengthening market resilience by addressing non-market policies and unfair trade practices that distort global supply chains.
The agreement encourages exploration of high-standard market mechanisms that promote transparent, reliable, and rules-based trade, while also committing both sides to engage with international partners on global pricing challenges. These elements reflect a broader effort to ensure that critical minerals markets remain open, predictable, and resilient amid geopolitical and economic pressures.
Additional areas of collaboration include investment in recycling technologies, improved management of critical minerals and rare earths scrap, and enhanced geological mapping efforts in the UAE, the United States, and other mutually agreed locations. The framework also supports stronger review mechanisms for asset sales on national security grounds and cooperation with third countries to further reinforce supply chain security.
Rising global demand
Speaking at the signing, Minister Alsuwaidi highlighted the urgency of coordinated action, noting that demand for critical minerals is expected to triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040. He stressed that sustaining investment momentum will be essential to meeting future needs and supporting resilient industrial growth.
He also underlined the importance of the US-UAE partnership, describing the United States as the second-largest source of foreign investment into the UAE. According to Alsuwaidi, the framework will help translate the broader bilateral relationship into tangible projects across the critical minerals value chain.
Helberg, for his part, described the UAE as a key partner of the United States, pointing to the UAE’s US$1.4 trillion investment commitment in the US over the next decade. He said the framework reflects a multi-layered partnership spanning strategic sectors and reinforces economic and national security cooperation.
Through the signing of the framework and its active participation in the ministerial, the UAE reaffirmed its commitment to international cooperation, investment-led partnerships, and shared solutions that support secure, diversified, and resilient critical minerals supply chains, contributing to long-term global economic stability.
