US invites India to G7 meeting on critical minerals, says Bessent: Will Delhi attend?

India is among other countries invited by the United States (US) to join a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies, said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Bessent told Reuters on Friday that he was unsure if India had accepted the invitation. His statement came after touring the Minneapolis-area engineering lab of RV and boat maker Winnebago Industries.

It was not immediately clear which other countries had been invited, Reuters reported.

The US is hosting the G7 meeting in Washington on Monday to discuss critical minerals.

Bessent said he had been pressing for a separate meeting on the issue since last summer's summit of G7 leaders, and finance ministers had already held a virtual meeting in December.

The G7 includes the United States, Britain, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Canada, as well as the European Union, most of whom are heavily dependent on rare earths supplies from China.

Last June, the group agreed on an action plan to secure their supply chains and boost their economies.

These minerals are used in defense technologies, semiconductors, renewable energy components, batteries and refining processes.

Western countries have sought to reduce their dependence on China's critical minerals in recent years, even as China moved to impose strict export controls on rare earths.

According to Reuters, the meeting on Monday comes days after reports that China had begun restricting exports to Japanese companies of rare earths and powerful magnets containing them, as well as banning exports of dual-use items to the Japanese military.

Bessent said China was still living up to its commitments to purchase US soybeans and ship critical minerals to US firms.

(With inputs from Reuters)