Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani is today signing the Italy-US Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the critical minerals sector with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in New York.
With the agreement signed, an Italy-US Technical Working Group on critical minerals is established, tasked with implementing bilateral cooperation.
Thanks to the agreement, it will be possible to strengthen joint work to secure the supply chains for these raw materials, through the exchange of information and expertise and the mobilisation of public and private resources for investment in the mining, processing and recycling sectors – the latter being a field in which Italy boasts companies of excellence.
The agreement also addresses the issue of market prices for critical raw materials, providing for collaboration with international partners to develop fairer price-setting mechanisms. This partnership is finally expected to complement and support coordination at the multilateral level, such as the coordination promoted by the G7 Alliance for Resilience and Production.
The Memorandum follows the Minister’s participation in the Ministerial event launching the US initiative “FORGE” (Forum for Geostrategic Engagement on Resources) on critical minerals last February in Washington. This is also part of Italy’s accession, on 31 July, to PAX Silica, a US initiative aimed at securing the supply chain for artificial intelligence and semiconductors. The agreement will complement a similar one signed last April between the EU and the United States.
