NEW DELHI—The QUAD nations, the United States, India, Japan, and Australia met for their first leadership-level summit on March 12 and decided to convene a Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group with an aim among other things to convene dialogues on critical technology supply chains. Critical technology supply chains indispensably rely on rare earth metals, a group of 17 different minerals that are necessary for today’s critical technologies, including the production of smartphones, military sensors and communication systems, missile systems, and electric cars. “Quad leaders recognize that a free, open, inclusive, and resilient Indo-Pacific requires that critical and emerging technology is governed and operates according to shared interests and values,” the White House said in a summit fact sheet on March 12. The rare earth metals had earlier taken a center stage in the trade war between the United States and China, which produces more than 80 percent of the …