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Vice President JD Vance Delivers Remarks at the Critical Minerals Ministerial, Feb. 4, 2026

February 4, 2026 · The White House · 0:41:37

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What happened

Vice President JD Vance delivered opening remarks at the Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, D.C. on February 4, 2026, a gathering of allied ministers hosted at the State Department. Secretary of State Marco Rubio introduced him, calling critical minerals “an issue of incredible importance to this administration” and “one of the top priorities” — diversifying supply chains and access “to ensure that they are secure and safe.”

The Vice President argued the current system is failing on its own terms: supply chains “remain brittle and exceptionally concentrated,” and asset and commodity prices are “persistently depressed, driven downward by forces beyond any individual country’s control.” He pointed to the administration’s recent moves, including Project Vault — “America’s first ever domestic critical minerals stockpile,” announced that Monday — and said the goal is “an ironclad network of new industrial supply chains” creating skilled, good-paying American jobs.

Why it matters

Critical minerals sit at the junction of Secretary Rubio’s diplomacy, the trade portfolio, and the industrial policy the Vice President has made his signature brief. The ministerial is the diplomatic half of the same program whose domestic half — Project Vault — the President announced on February 2, 2026.

Scoreboard watch

This is a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard: a dated allied-ministerial commitment to diversify critical-minerals supply chains, paired with the Project Vault stockpile announced two days earlier.

Sources: The White House, “Vice President JD Vance Delivers Remarks at the Critical Minerals Ministerial” (official upload, Washington, D.C., embedded above). Remarks as delivered at the event.