Lithuania may sign minerals deal with US if EU moves too slowly

Bloomberg News | February 13, 2026 | 4:24 pm Critical Minerals Energy Europe USA

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda speaking to reporters at the Munich Security Conference. Credit: Gitanas Nausėda | X

The Lithuanian government may opt to sign a bilateral deal with the US on critical minerals if the European Union fails to finalize a joint partnership quickly enough, the Baltic nation’s top diplomat said.

The EU member state has criticized the bloc as being too slow in preparing an agreement with the US and other like-minded nations on trade in critical minerals. The partnership aims to jointly find ways to source the minerals, which are needed for most modern technologies, without relying on China.

“We have the intention to go forward at the European level,” Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. “But it’s time sensitive. We need everyone’s interest within the European Union. If not, then the way forward is bilaterally.”

For months, the US and its trading partners have worked toward a cooperation to wean their supply chains off China and ensure stable access to key resources. EU capitals gave the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, a mandate to negotiate an agreement with the US. President Donald Trump’s administration meanwhile has pressed some EU members to sign bilateral deals.

Efforts to scale back reliance on Chinese supplies of critical minerals have been at the center of a protracted trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Finding alternatives became more urgent last year after Beijing announced export restrictions on so-called rare earths.

US marshals EU, Japan and Mexico in critical minerals push

The US and another 55 countries agreed last week to set up new policies including price floors to help solve supply-chain vulnerabilities.

Lithuania’s engineering sector and its rapidly-growing defense industry needs to diversify imports of critical minerals and to cut dependence on unreliable regimes — primarily China, which the Baltic nation deems engaging in “unfair practices” and using exports as “a tool of political pressure,” Budrys said on Feb. 4.

(By Andrea Palasciano, Alberto Nardelli and Milda Seputyte)