Paris G7 Pushes Back on Chinas Grip on Critical Minerals

Flags of (L–R) Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, the United States, and the EU are displayed for a G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting at the City Hall in Muenster, western Germany, on Nov. 3, 2022. Wolfgang Rattay /POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesPARIS—G7 trade ministers wrapped up two days of talks in Paris this week with a joint statement that, without naming China, took aim at Beijing’s grip on critical mineral supply chains and signaled the bloc’s intent to push back against what they called attempts to “weaponize economic dependencies.”The May 5–6 meeting, held under France’s rotating G7 presidency, targeted Western reliance on Chinese-controlled supplies of lithium, cobalt, rare earths, and other materials essential for defense systems, electric vehicles, semiconductors, and industrial manufacturing. The talks set the stage for a leaders’ summit scheduled for mid-June in Évian, France.