India proposes Critical Minerals Circularity Initiative at G20 Summit

• Alliance to help foster recycling, second-life battery projects
• India eyes global partnerships to boost supply chain resilience

India has proposed a G20 Critical Minerals Circularity Initiative to foster recycling, urban mining, second-life battery projects, and innovation of various types. This partnership would help strengthen supply chain security and develop cleaner pathways of development, said Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, at the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 22 November.

“Critical minerals should be seen as a shared resource for humanity,” Modi said, highlighting their importance to enabling sustainability and clean energy for global growth.

India also brought up cooperation on critical minerals supply in separate meetings with South Africa and Japan. According to a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs, the subject was also on the agenda of the Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation (ACITI) Partnership.

India eyes global partnerships to boost supply chain resilience

India’s imports of critical minerals increased by more than 2.5 times from an estimated $192 billion in 2020-21 to $508 billion in 2023-24, as per a note titled ‘The Path Forward in Canada-India Critical Minerals Co-operation’ by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
This was driven by a boom in EVs, renewable energy, and semiconductor manufacturing. So far, China has been the primary supplier of critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements.

The report also states that, as India’s domestic reserves are inadequate for meeting projected needs, “India is complementing homegrown reforms with a growing network of international partnerships to source, process, finance, and de-risk critical-mineral supply chains.”
Previously, in June 2025, India had endorsed G7 Canada’s Critical Minerals Action Plan, which “was a development reflecting the two countries’ growing alignment on clean-energy transitions and supply-chain resilience amid intensifying global competition”, as per the report.