The administration of US President Donald Trump is forming a coalition to counter China's dominant control over critical minerals and the developing country as a hub for artificial intelligence and other technological sectors, Politico reports, writes UNN.
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The administration, as stated, "plans to launch a coalition of partners with the signing on Friday of the Pax Silica declaration, which will bring together Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Israel in cooperation aimed at addressing the shortage of access to critical minerals, displacing China's massive investments in its critical minerals and technology sector." The administration is actively seeking opportunities to involve other countries in the group, the publication writes.
This initiative, it is noted, underscores the extent to which the Trump administration views China's near-monopoly on rare earth elements – minerals critical to civilian and military applications – and dominance in other parts of the global supply chain as a significant threat.
Beijing exercises its dominance in the sector through export restrictions aimed at combating the Trump administration's aggressive tariff policy on Chinese imports.
The declaration also reflects US concerns about China's massive investments in artificial intelligence and quantum computing, which could give it a competitive advantage in the 21st-century economy, the publication writes.
"This is industrial policy for an economic security coalition, and it's a game-changer because today there is no group where we can come together to discuss the AI economy and how we compete with China in AI," Gelberg said. "By aligning our approaches to economic security, we can begin to achieve cohesion to essentially block China's Belt and Road Initiative, which is really designed to reinforce its export-oriented model, by denying China the ability to buy ports, major highways, transportation and logistics corridors."
Gelberg said the Trump administration aims to expand the coalition from the initial five countries signing the declaration to include more allies and partners with mineral, technological, and manufacturing resources.
The signing of the declaration kicks off a one-day Pax Silica administration summit, which will be attended by officials from the European Union, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates. The summit will discuss cooperation in areas such as advanced manufacturing, mineral processing, and logistics.
"This grouping of countries will be to the AI era what the G7 was to the industrial era," Gelberg said. "It commits us to a process where we are going to cooperate on aligning our export controls, foreign investment screening, addressing anti-dumping issues, but with a very proactive agenda on securing choke points in the global supply chain system."