Weaponisation of Technology & Critical Minerals: BRICS & India

Subject: GS 2: International Relations

Context: At the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, the Indian Prime Minister warned that the “weaponisation” of technology and critical minerals could hinder shared progress, highlighting the growing use of strategic dependencies as instruments of geopolitical and economic leverage.

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BRICS Response & Significance

India’s BRICS presidency has focused on four pillars — Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.

• Supply Chain Security: The BRICS Logistics Supply Chain Cooperation Framework seeks to make supply chains more reliable and resilient against disruptions.
• Technology Inclusivity: The BRICS Network on Digital Agriculture aims to connect AI, geospatial technology & Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) with farmers’ needs.
• Innovation Ecosystem: The BRICS Incubator Network and proposed BRICS Startup Innovation Fund seek greater cooperation among start-ups and incubators.
• Crisis Preparedness: An integrated BRICS Early Warning System for infectious diseases and disaster-management data guidelines seek to strengthen collective preparedness.
• Energy Resilience: A Digital Centre of Excellence for Smart Grids and Energy Storage can support reliable, efficient and accessible clean-energy systems.
• Open-Source AI: China proposed a BRICS AI open-source community, including cooperation on large language models, training and an open AI ecosystem.

Understanding Weaponisation

• Weaponised Interdependence: Farrell and Newman’s concept explains how countries controlling central “hubs” in global networks can exploit interconnected systems to exert power over countries dependent on those hubs.
• Technology Hubs: Control over advanced semiconductors, lithography equipment, AI computing, data and digital infrastructure can translate into strategic leverage.
• Mineral Hubs: The issue is not simply geological scarcity; concentration of mining, processing and refining in a few countries creates greater vulnerability.
• Economic Coercion: Export restrictions, sanctions, licensing requirements and technology controls can disrupt production, defence capabilities, energy transition and digital development.
• Dual-Use Technologies: AI, semiconductors, quantum technologies and advanced computing have both civilian and military applications, making technological dependence a security concern.

Emerging Examples of Weaponisation

• China’s Critical Mineral Controls: Export restrictions on gallium, germanium and antimony demonstrate how dominance in mineral processing can become a geopolitical instrument.
• US Technology Controls: The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act and restrictions on advanced semiconductor technologies seek to strengthen domestic capabilities and limit strategic technology transfers.
• Lithography Bottleneck: Restrictions involving advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, particularly high-end lithography technologies, illustrate the strategic importance of technology chokepoints.
  • Lithography: A semiconductor manufacturing technique that uses light to transfer microscopic circuit patterns onto silicon wafers. 
  • EUV lithography, using extremely short-wavelength light, enables production of advanced chips for AI, defence and high-performance computing and represents a key technology chokepoint. 
• Retaliatory Risks: Such measures can encourage counter-controls, reciprocal restrictions and parallel technology ecosystems, intensifying geopolitical competition.
• Technology Fragmentation: Excessive securitisation can undermine global technological interoperability and accelerate de-risking, friend-shoring and technological decoupling.

Strategic Importance of Technology & Critical Minerals

• Energy Security: Lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and rare earth elements are crucial for batteries, electric vehicles, renewable-energy systems and energy storage.
• Defence Security: Critical minerals support radars, missiles, aircraft, electronics and precision systems.
• Digital Sovereignty: Semiconductors and advanced computing underpin AI, telecommunications, electronics and strategic digital infrastructure.
• Strategic Autonomy: Excessive dependence on a few suppliers can constrain a country’s ability to pursue an independent foreign, defence and economic policy.
• Developmental Divide: Unequal access to frontier technologies can widen the digital, economic and technological gap between developed and developing countries.

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India’s Strategic Response

India needs to complement BRICS cooperation with domestic capacity-building and diversified international partnerships.

• Critical Minerals Mission: The National Critical Minerals Mission (NCMM) strengthens exploration, mining, processing, recycling and supply-chain security for critical minerals.
• Overseas Mineral Acquisition: Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) pursues overseas acquisition of critical mineral assets to diversify India’s sources of supply.
• Mining Reforms: The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023 strengthened the framework for exploration and development of critical and strategic minerals.
• Semiconductor Capability: The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) seeks to build domestic capabilities in semiconductor manufacturing, packaging and related ecosystems.
• Diversified Partnerships: Engagement through the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) and Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) with Japan and Australia can reduce excessive dependence on any single geopolitical bloc.
• Circular Economy: Greater recycling and recovery of critical minerals from batteries, e-waste and industrial waste can reduce import vulnerability.

Challenges that need to be Addressed

• Internal Asymmetry: BRICS itself is not free from strategic dependencies; China’s strong position in critical-mineral processing and refining creates an asymmetry within the grouping.
• Competing Interests: BRICS members have divergent interests on technology standards, trade, security and geopolitics, limiting deeper integration.
• Technology Fragmentation: Competing US-, China- and other country-led technology ecosystems may increase costs and reduce interoperability.
• Resource Nationalism: Export restrictions and strategic stockpiling can intensify competition over mineral resources.
• Security-Development Dilemma: Excessive restrictions on technology transfers may restrict developing countries’ access to technologies necessary for health, agriculture, climate action and development.
• WTO Challenge: Growing use of trade restrictions for national-security objectives complicates the rules-based multilateral trading system.

Way Forward

• Short-Term — Diversification And Preparedness: Diversify mineral suppliers and technology sources while developing strategic reserves, early-warning systems and supply-chain monitoring.
• Medium-Term — Domestic Capability And Circularity: Expand domestic exploration, refining, semiconductor manufacturing and recycling, alongside R&D in substitutes and resource-efficient technologies.
• Long-Term — Rules And Inclusive Technology: Develop transparent international norms governing export controls, technology transfers and critical-mineral supply chains, while promoting open and interoperable technologies.
• Strategic Partnerships: Strengthen cooperation among BRICS, Quad, MSP and other platforms rather than allowing strategic competition to produce rigid technological blocs.

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Conclusion

The challenge is not interdependence, but its weaponisation through strategic chokepoints. BRICS must promote rules-based, diversified and inclusive interdependence for greater global resilience.

News Source: The Hindu

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