Minerals Security Partnership

The Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) was a government coordination forum launched in June 2022 to support more diverse and responsible critical-mineral supply chains. On 4 February 2026, the United States announced the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (FORGE) as its successor. The current institution is therefore FORGE; references to the MSP should be dated or used for the predecessor programme.

MSP model

The MSP brought together governments and the European Union to identify mining, processing and recycling projects and coordinate diplomatic, export-credit and development-finance support. It did not hold a common budget, make collective loans or guarantee that a project would receive financing. Member agencies retained their own mandates and investment decisions.

The forum's stated objectives included supply-chain resilience, high environmental and social standards and support for projects across extraction, processing and recycling. Its strategic rationale lay in concentration, especially where a small number of jurisdictions dominate processing or refining. Diversification sought to reduce disruption risk and improve bargaining power. It was not a blanket effort to remove China from every supply chain.

Project announcements also require careful language. MSP recognition established political support and coordination. It did not necessarily mean final investment decision, construction, production or public financing. Assessment should track which agency committed what instrument, the amount, conditions, project stage and eventual output.

Transition to FORGE

The final documented MSP principals' meeting took place in November 2025 after Belgium joined as its fifteenth participating state in October. The European Commission also participated. The United States launched FORGE at the Critical Minerals Ministerial on 4 February 2026 and described it as succeeding the MSP. In March 2026, the Council of the European Union approved a non-binding instrument for European participation. A July 2026 Republic of Korea foreign-ministry account listed 16 states and the European Commission as 17 FORGE participants, and recorded Korea's handover of the chair to the United States after Korea's inaugural term.

These dated official statements establish the current forum and chair transition. They do not turn FORGE into a treaty organisation or a supranational funding body. Membership, governance and projects should be checked against current official records before publication because the institution is new and still developing.

Assessment

The partnership model can align demand signals, technical standards and national finance without creating a single fund. Its weakness is the same feature: coordination cannot close a cost or permitting gap unless members commit capital, offtake, infrastructure or regulatory change.

Success should be measured in additional, operating capacity and reduced concentration, not the number of projects discussed. Long development timelines mean institutional activity in 2026 cannot yet establish supply-chain resilience. FORGE's significance is organisational: it treats critical-mineral investment as an economic-security problem and connects governments that control different financing and policy tools.

Offtake is a further test. A processing project may reach financial close yet remain strategically fragile if buyers do not accept higher costs or if another concentrated supplier controls downstream conversion. Resilience must be measured across the chain.

See also

Critical minerals weaponisation · Chinese critical minerals export controls (2010 to present) · Reported Chinese rare earth shipment interruption to Japan (2010) · Collective resilience · Critical-mineral processing chokepoint · Chokepoint effect · Group of Seven (G7)

Sources

1. United States Department of State, Critical Minerals Ministerial and FORGE (4 February 2026).
2. Council of the European Union, Council decision concerning European participation in FORGE (March 2026).
3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, MSP principals' meeting (19 November 2025).
4. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, FORGE chair handover (July 2026).
5. United States Department of State, Minerals Security Partnership projects and archive (accessed 30 July 2026).
6. International Energy Agency, Critical Minerals Data Explorer (accessed 30 July 2026).