Briefing on Energy, Critical Minerals, and Security
Tomorrow afternoon (5 March), the Security Council will hold a briefing on “Energy, critical minerals, and security” under the “Maintenance of international peace and security” agenda item. US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright is expected to chair the meeting, which is one of the signature events of the US presidency of the Council in March. Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo is expected to brief.
The US has circulated a concept note to Council members to help guide the discussion at tomorrow’s meeting. It says that the briefing aims to explore the link between energy dominance and competition for natural resources, such as critical minerals, and its implications for the maintenance of international peace and security. The concept note maintains that competition over natural resources drives global conflict, arguing that the highly concentrated critical minerals market enables political coercion and supply chain disruption, threatening core security interests.
In this context, the US National Security Strategy, released in November 2025, highlighted securing critical mineral supply chains as a matter of national security. On 15 January, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Adjusting Imports of Processed Critical Minerals and Their Derivative Products into the United States” to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign sources. On 2 February, the US launched “Project Vault”, a Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve to protect the US industrial base and defence sector from shortages.
Additionally, the US National Security Strategy aims to position the US as a leading global energy supplier, leveraging this role to advance its strategic and geopolitical interests. It also prioritised American energy dominance to strengthen energy independence and reduce vulnerabilities to geopolitical pressure from perceived adversaries. The Trump administration has already introduced several policies in a bid to achieve this objective, which have reversed the energy policies set by the administration of former US President Joe Biden.
The Security Council has addressed the link between critical minerals and insecurity in several of its country-specific files, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the wider Great Lakes region. Council members have also held thematic discussions on the matter in informal formats. For instance, in July 2025, then-Council member Sierra Leone convened an Arria-formula meeting titled “The Global Race for Critical Minerals: Addressing Resource-Driven Insecurity in Africa” with the objective of strengthening international awareness of the link between critical minerals and insecurity in Africa and identifying actionable policy measures to address the issue. (For more information, see our 8 July 2025 What’s in Blue story.)
At tomorrow’s meeting, several speakers may highlight longstanding concerns about how the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the DRC is fuelling conflict in the eastern part of the country. The DRC holds vast reserves of critical minerals and plays a central role in global supply chains, including 70 percent of cobalt supply. Armed groups operating in eastern DRC continue to exploit and trade these minerals, fuelling ongoing conflicts and heightening regional tensions. This has apparently disrupted critical mineral supply chains and hindered efforts to promote responsible sourcing.
According to export data released by the media outlet The Africa Report on 27 February, the DRC has sold $1.8 billion worth of copper to the US and saw its exports surge sixfold in 2025. This followed intensified engagement between the two countries on these matters during 2025, which culminated in December of that year with the signing of a bilateral strategic partnership agreement between the US and the DRC. That agreement came after the DRC government offered the US a deal that would allow it to secure critical minerals in the DRC in exchange for US support in the government’s fight against the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) rebel group. DRC President Félix Tshisekedi appeared on US news channel Fox News on 19 March 2025 to explain this offer, which he argued “will give strategic advantage to both countries”. More recently, the DRC has included Rubaya, a mining site in the North Kivu province estimated to supply over 15 percent of global tantalum production that is currently under M23 control, in the list of strategic assets to be offered to the US as part of the strategic partnership agreement, according to an 18 February media report.
The US has been involved in mediating between the DRC and Rwanda to ease tension between the two countries, which accuse each other of supporting proxies in the conflict in eastern DRC. This resulted in the signing of the Washington Accords on 4 December 2025 under US auspices, but implementation has been challenging, as both parties accuse each other of violating the agreement’s terms. Yesterday (2 March), the US imposed sanctions on four Rwandan senior military officials and on the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) as an entity, citing the violation of the Washington Accords by the “Rwanda-backed M23” when it captured the city of Uvira in the South Kivu province just days after the signing of the agreement.
It appears that securing critical mineral supply chains has become a central focus of US diplomatic engagement. On 4 February, the US hosted a Critical Minerals Ministerial, which was attended by delegations from 54 countries—including Council members Bahrain, the DRC, France, Pakistan, and the UK—as well as the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union (EU). During the meeting, the US signed bilateral critical minerals frameworks with 11 countries. On the same day, the US announced a preferential trade bloc for critical minerals, in a bid to counter China’s dominance in this market.
According to a 2023 report by the intergovernmental organisation the International Energy Agency (IEA), the production of critical minerals is highly concentrated geographically, with China supplying 60 percent of rare earth elements (REE). China also has a significant advantage in processing these minerals, refining 90 percent of REEs and 60-70 percent of lithium and cobalt—minerals vital for lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones, and laptops.
The US has criticised China for implementing targeted export restrictions on critical minerals in the context of trade tensions between the two countries. However, China has reportedly rejected US accusations and expressed serious concerns about the establishment of the preferential trade bloc, which it said undermines the international economic and trade order through small groupings, and called instead for “an open, inclusive, and universally beneficial international trade environment”.
In 2025, the Trump administration pushed for a deal that secures critical energy and mineral resources vital for US national security and economic interests in exchange for its continued financial and material support to Ukraine’s defence and its post-war recovery. Ukraine is rich in critical minerals essential for modern technology, green energy, and defence. The US push resulted in the two countries signing on 30 April 2025 an agreement establishing a US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. The agreement is focused on developing Ukraine’s natural resources—including critical minerals, oil, and gas—by establishing a 50/50 partnership to secure US companies’ preferential access to these resources in exchange for investment and financial support for Ukraine.
In February 2025, Russia had reportedly proposed a deal to the US, offering access to critical REEs and raw materials in both Russia and in territory in Ukraine currently held by Russia, in an apparent attempt to counter the US-Ukraine negotiations then under way. While it seems that the US showed willingness to explore the proposal, there is so far no indication that the proposal has gained any traction.
Tomorrow’s meeting takes place against the backdrop of a US-Israeli military operation in Iran, a country that holds one of the world’s largest proven oil and natural gas reserves. The US National Security Strategy underscores the importance of the region, stating that “America will always have core interests in ensuring that Gulf energy supplies do not fall into the hands of an outright enemy, [and] that the Strait of Hormuz remain[s] open”. There are already concerns about a potential spike in oil prices and disruptions to global energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic maritime chokepoint for oil and gas shipments from the Persian Gulf. The issue might be raised at tomorrow’s meeting in the context of addressing the nexus between energy and security.
The need to respect sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as to uphold international law, has been a recurring theme in the Council’s discussions on several situations, including Venezuela and Iran, and some members may reiterate these points at tomorrow’s meeting. Other members who attended the 4 February critical minerals ministerial meeting may also take the opportunity to highlight its outcome.
