Malaysia courts US to climb critical minerals value chain while keeping raw export ban

Analysts say the stance reflects a careful balancing act: Kuala Lumpur wants US capital and technology to build downstream industries at home but is wary of being seen as taking sides in an intensifying US–China contest over strategic resources.

A ban on raw rare earth exports, they argue, underpins that strategy by forcing value creation domestically rather than locking Malaysia into a low-value extraction model.

At a US-hosted Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington last week, Malaysia’s foreign minister, Mohamad Hasan, said the country wanted to deepen its role in the supply chain by anchoring cooperation in processing, manufacturing and investment at home.

“Malaysia, therefore, seeks to work with partners to move beyond a purely extractive role and towards higher levels of value creation, that are commercially viable and sustainable over time,” Mohamad said in his formal remarks at the meeting on February 4.