U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Colombia’s Foreign Minister Omar Bula Seal Deals on Critical Minerals and Civil Nuclear Cooperation

On September 8, during Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Barranquilla, Colombia, he and Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula signed two agreements to strengthen cooperation on critical minerals and civil nuclear energy. These agreements aim to renew the more than two‑century‑old U.S.-Colombia partnership and position it as a cornerstone of regional security and economic collaboration.

Critical Minerals Framework

• It creates a U.S.-Colombia framework to build resilient, diversified, and equitable supply chains for critical minerals and rare earths, committing both governments to leverage government and private‑sector tools—such as guarantees, loans, equity stakes, offtake agreements, insurance, and regulatory support—to jointly identify and fund mining and processing projects within six months of signing.
• It calls for streamlined permitting, market‑protective pricing measures like price floors, national‑security review mechanisms for critical minerals asset sales, investment in mineral recycling technologies, and cooperation on geological mapping.

Civil Nuclear Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding

• It establishes a bilateral framework for strategic civil nuclear cooperation between the United States and Colombia, grounded in the Non‑Proliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, as Colombia evaluates nuclear power to boost energy security and deepen the broader U.S.-Colombia strategic partnership.
• It expresses a shared intent to cooperate on regulatory capacity building, industry partnerships, and scientific and academic exchanges to strengthen Colombia’s civil nuclear infrastructure and workforce; to explore U.S. nuclear technologies—including advanced and small modular reactors—as well as fuel, equipment, and services; and to pursue both power and non‑power applications such as research reactors, radioisotopes, nuclear medicine, agriculture, and waste management, all while maintaining the highest standards of safety, security, and non‑proliferation.

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