USA and Italy sign agreement on critical eye minerals in China

O a memorandum of understanding was signed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani during a ceremony held at a hotel in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly.

“Italy has been a great partner with whom we want to continue to work,” Rubio said before the press, while Tajani stressed that the agreement represents “a central point” for Italian industrial policy.

The agreement will allow both countries to exchange information and technical knowledge, as well as to mobilise public resources and private investments in this sector, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

It also provides for cooperation with international partners to develop mechanisms to help reduce the prices of these materials.

The United States has intensified initiatives to ensure the supply of rare earths and other critical minerals, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese, with the aim of reducing its dependence on China, which dominates the sector.

Even before signing the memorandum on Sunday, Tajani stated that one of the priorities to be dealt with by Rubio on his visit to the United States would be to sign the agreement on “raw materials to ensure safer supply”.

“It also includes the so-called ‘Pax Silica’,” Tajani said, referring to the Washington-led international initiative to ensure the security of supply chains for advanced technologies such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence (IA).

The agreement between President Donald Trump's administration and the Government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni comes up with a context of cooling relations between the two allies this year, following the Republican leader's criticism of Italy's refusal to support the war against Iran.

The crisis led Rubio to travel to Rome last May to regain bilateral relations.