Washington DC, July 3 -- The four-nation Quad grouping announced a new Critical Minerals Initiative during a meeting of their foreign ministers in Washington on Tuesday in a move seen as a response to China's export curbs on seven rare earth minerals that disrupted global supply chains. "We are deeply concerned about the abrupt constriction and future reliability of key supply chains, specifically for critical minerals. This includes the use of non-market policies and practices for critical minerals, certain derivative products, and mineral processing technology," the Quad foreign ministers said in a joint statement, that did not name China. Rare earths are a subset of critical minerals, which are elements and substances that are crucial to national and economic security given their importance in manufacturing and defence sectors. Beijing's restrictions announced in April were imposed in response to President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States. "We underscore the importance of diversified and reliable global supply chains. Reliance on any one country for processing and refining critical minerals and derivative goods production exposes our industries to economic coercion, price manipulation, and supply chain disruptions, which further harms our economic and national security," said the Quad Foreign Ministers in their joint statement. "We are launching today the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, an ambitious expansion of our partnership to strengthen economic security and collective resilience by collaborating to secure and diversify critical minerals supply chains," they added. China accounted for 70% of global production of rare earth elements in 2022, according to the Oxford Institute For Energy Studies. The Quad statement comes on the eve of 5-nation tour by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during which the supply of are earths is expected to figure as key focus area in discussions, according to the ministry of external affairs. There have been efforts to tackle the critical minerals challenge in the past. In February 2025, India and the United States launched the Strategic Mineral Recovery Initiative, which aims to recover and process critical minerals like lithium, cobalt and rare earths from heavy industries like coal mining. During Prime Minister Modi's visit to America earlier this year, the two countries agreed to push research, development and investment across the entire critical minerals value chain. Washington and New Delhi are also key members of the Minerals Security Partnership, a multinational initiative launched in 2022 to develop new critical minerals supply chains amid concerns of China's dominance in this sector. Fourteen nations - including Australia, Canada, France and Germany - and the European Union are part of the MSP. The grouping has also established a finance network to channel funding from national development finance institutions toward key critical minerals projects....