India-Chile CEPA Talks: Critical Minerals Become the Main Sticking Point
India and Chile want to finish talks on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by the end of 2026, but they disagree on critical minerals such as copper and lithium.
India wants preferential access (a guaranteed or favoured right to buy) to Chilean copper and lithium. Chile has agreed to a separate chapter on critical minerals, but wants it to focus on supply-chain cooperation and on exporting value-added products (processed goods, not just raw ores).
Chile has rejected many of India's requests, saying they are not possible under its existing laws. India's view is that it is opening its large market to Chile and should get "something substantive" on minerals in return.
In 2025, India's exports to Chile were US$1.41 billion (up from US$1.24 billion), while imports from Chile rose to US$3.97 billion (from US$2.59 billion), mainly because of higher gold imports.
In November 2025, Chile's state copper company Codelco and Kutch Copper (an Indian private company) signed an agreement to explore three copper projects in Chile.
India-Chile Relations: Trade, Minerals and the CEPA
Chile is a long, narrow country on the Pacific coast of South America, between the Andes mountains and the ocean. For India, it matters mainly for three reasons: it is the world's largest producer of copper, it holds the world's largest lithium reserves, and it is a gateway to Antarctica and to the fast-growing Pacific economies of Latin America. India and Chile already have a small trade deal, and are now negotiating a much bigger one, a CEPA.
The CEPA talks have stalled on the minerals chapter because Chile's laws keep lithium under state control and Chile prefers cooperation over special access. India sees minerals as its main gain from the deal, since it is opening its big market to Chile. Whether the two can find a middle path will decide if the CEPA is finished by the end of 2026.
Critical Minerals: Meaning, India's List and Global Supply Chains
Critical minerals are minerals that a country needs badly for its economy and security, but whose supply is at risk. They are used in mobile phones, electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, computer chips and defence equipment. Lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, copper and the rare earth elements are common examples. A mineral becomes "critical" when it is both very important and hard to get reliably.
Copper and lithium are both on India's critical minerals list, and India imports most of what it needs. That is why India is pressing Chile so hard for a strong minerals chapter in the CEPA.
- India-Chile CEPA target: conclusion by end-2026
- India's exports to Chile in 2025: US$1.41 billion (2024: US$1.24 billion)
- India's imports from Chile in 2025: US$3.97 billion (2024: US$2.59 billion), driven by gold
- Chile is India's fifth-largest trading partner in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Existing PTA: 2006, expanded 2016 (in force May 2017); India 1,031 and Chile 1,798 tariff lines
- CEPA scope: goods, critical minerals, services, digital services, MSMEs, investment
- November 2025: Codelco and an Indian company agreed to explore three copper projects in Chile