Trump also lavished praise on Japan’s newly-elected PM Sanae Takaichi, the country’s first female leader who, in return, promised to nominate the US President for the Nobel Peace Prize

The US is racing to establish a rare earth supply chain separate from China following Beijing’s increasingly aggressive moves to restrict its exports of rare earths to the country

There are 17 rare earths that are vital materials in products ranging from electric vehicles to aircraft engines and military radars and exports of 12 of them are now restricted

Delays on export license applications began in September, before Beijing's move last week to expand controls over the critical minerals used in magnets, sources say

Analysts say investor mood remains fragile amid the recent round of trade uncertainty between China and the US

'We're going to have a lot of magnets in a pretty short period of time. In fact, we'll have so many we won't know what to do with them,' the US President said

From talks on resuming direct flights to a series of high-level bilateral visits, longtime rivals China and India are quietly and cautiously strengthening ties

China's crackdown on the smuggling and trans-shipment of critical minerals hit exports of antimony and germanium in June even as rare earth magnet shipments jumped sharply thanks to a deal with Washington

A Ford executive said this week that China’s approval process for rare earth exports was still much slower than what the industry needed

China's global exports of antimony are now just a third of the levels seen this time last year

The carmaker should be able to produce electric vehicles or hybrid cars without disruptions "for at least about one year”

Dialogue on Beijing's rare earth blockade has now become part of its negotiations on the EU's tariffs on China-made EVs, and it signals China's willingness to use its dominance in the critical industry as leverage