US reaches out to India and allies for 'fulsome group response' to China's rare earth controls

Washington, Oct 15 (IANS) US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday reiterated Washington's desire to build a “fulsome group response” to Chinese export controls on rare earths, including proposed talks with Indian officials.

“We are going to be speaking with our European allies, with Australia, with Canada, with India and the Asian democracies, and we're going to have a fulsome group response to this,” he told CNBC.

He added that this is a “China versus the world" and "not a US-China problem” and “bureaucrats in China cannot manage the supply chain or the manufacturing process for the rest of the world.”

In a separate press conference on Wednesday, Bessent targeted China for fuelling the conflict in Ukraine by buying Russian energy.

“It is the purchase of Russian oil by China that fuels the Russian war machine. China buys 60% of Russian energy. They buy 90% of Iranian energy. So, who is fuelling the Russian war machine?,” he said.

However, the Treasury Secretary kept the door of negotiations with the Chinese open.

“I believe China is open to discussion, and I am optimistic that this can be de-escalated. We have had substantial communication with the Chinese over the past few days, and we believe that there will be more forthcoming this week,” he noted.

In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Bessent had warned the US won’t “let these export restrictions and monitoring go on” and “everything is on the table” to retaliate against Chinese measures.

“Back in early summer, we were forced to put 12 countermeasures on China that were highly affected from natural resources that are used in the making of plastics to jet engines and parts. I believe that they substantially had to ground a large part of their civilian fleet. So, we have plenty of straight brute force countermeasures that we can pull,” he had said.

Last week, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose additional 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese products from November 1 and export controls on “any and all critical software.”

In another post, he hinted at cancelling the upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, accusing Beijing of “hostile” trade behaviour after China expanded export controls on rare earth elements.

However, on Sunday, Trump said there is no need to “worry about China” and the Chinese President just “had a bad moment.”

Last week, Beijing tightened its export control measures on rare-earth elements and imposed a fee on US ships as Washington expanded its own rules governing exports.

Bessent confirmed that the meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would still happen in South Korea.

“President Trump said that the tariffs would not go into effect until November. 1. He will be meeting with Party Chair Xi in Korea. I believe that meeting will still be on, ” he said.

Both sides have been engaged in trade negotiations since April, with a temporary truce expiring on November 10.

--IANS

scor/as