BEIJING: In what could be a strategy to limit India’s military capability, China is restricting the supply of rare earth and certain other metals, according to a top Defence Ministry official.
These metals are of vital importance in the development of several defence equipments and weapons.Avinash Chander, DRDO chief and Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister, said on Wednesday that China has stopped the supply of basic metals like Tungsten in addition to rare earth metals.Rare earth metals are vital components of sensors, actuators, communications and navigation systems and so forth for use in defence equipment. To add to it, India doesn’t have the requisite capability for supply of some of the finished metals for use in assembly of defence equipments.
Delivering a lecture at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) as part of the AP Akademi of Sciences lecture series, Chander said, “Even in basic metals like Tungsten, we are struggling.
We developed the technology for Tungsten but it was set aside due to economic compulsions. Now China is not supplying the metal and there is a void.”He further added, “India has very poor rare earth metal ores. But we still need to exploit them. China is now denying rare earth metals as well to us. We need to see what to do.”
A similar strategy was adopted by China denying the supply of rare earth metals to Japan in 2010 after a political dispute.When China and Japan had a clash, China stopped supplying rare earth metals and Japan came to a standstill. These metals are used practically everywhere from sensors to actuators,” Chander said.
China holds a monopoly over the supply of rare earth metals in the world, with more than half of the world’s deposits, and is feared for specifically to hold countries hostage.
