India's Narendra Modi At BRICS Warns Against Critical-Mineral 'Weaponization' as Great Powers Era 2.0 Takes Shape

Highlights

• Modi warned at the BRICS Summit that weaponizing technology and critical minerals could obstruct shared prosperity, with Xi Jinping present.
• Rare Earth Exchanges frames critical minerals as an industrial-age chokepoint analogous to the Strait of Hormuz, but harder to reroute than oil.
• The BRICS declaration called for diversified, resilient critical-mineral supply chains and sovereign control over mineral resources.
• India is pursuing a dual-track de-risking strategy, engaging both BRICS and the Quad while building domestic mineral processing capabilities.
• Investors are urged to track processing chokepoints—separation, metals, alloys, magnets—not just upstream mining assets.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi just described one of the defining features of Rare Earth Exchanges' Great Powers Era 2.0™ thesis. With Chinese President Xi Jinping present at the BRICS Summit, Modi warned that the "weaponization of technology and critical minerals" could obstruct shared prosperity. The remark matters because critical minerals are joining oil, shipping lanes, semiconductors, energy infrastructure, and financial systems as instruments of geopolitical leverage.

REEx Insight | From Hormuz to Rare Earths: Geography and Production Becomes Power

Great Powers Era 2.0™ is increasingly visible in the real world. For decades, strategists worried about oil chokepoints. The Strait of Hormuz illustrates the model perfectly: roughly 20 million barrels per day of crude and petroleum products crossed the narrow passage in 2025, representing about one-quarter of global seaborne oil trade. Control, disruption, or even credible threats against that artery can move markets thousands of miles away.

Venezuela demonstrates another version: enormous geological resources acquire geopolitical significance when access, sanctions, infrastructure, and political alignment determine who can actually obtain them.

Rare earths represent the industrial-age evolution of the same phenomenon. But the chokepoint is not a strait on a map. It is a processing stack: separation → metals → alloys → magnets—industrial systems developed over decades. That distinction may prove even more consequential. Oil can often be rerouted or sourced elsewhere. A qualified defense magnet cannot simply substitute ore for separated oxide, metal, or alloy.

Great Powers Era 2.0 is therefore ecosystem versus ecosystem. Whoever controls the difficult middle of the supply chain possesses something resembling an industrial Strait of Hormuz.

Modi's Warning Was Bigger Than China

India Today's implication (opens in a new tab) that Modi was signaling Beijing is reasonable, but Modi did not publicly name China. More revealing is the BRICS declaration itself: members called for diversified, resilient critical-mineral supply chains, domestic value addition, and preservation of sovereign control over mineral resources. India is simultaneously engaging BRICS and the Quad while building domestic capabilities—a textbook de-risking strategy rather than simple decoupling.

The investor takeaway: stop looking only for the next mine. Follow the chokepoints. Subscribe to REEx Insights Rankings to track the supply chain.