Jakarta. Senior minister Airlangga Hartarto said Friday that the US was eyeing Indonesian critical minerals for automotives and military weapons manufacturing, as they recently settled all substantial issues on an upcoming trade deal.

Airlangga had just returned from a Washington trip where he led another round of tariff talks with US trade tsar Jamieson Greer. The two countries have been negotiating a trade agreement set to be signed by President Prabowo Subianto and his American counterpart Donald Trump by end-January. According to Airlangga, Washington had restated its wish to expand its supplies of critical minerals during the discussions. This includes copper, an essential metal in a range of defense systems, ranging from aircraft, submarines, to ammunition.

“The US needs access to critical minerals for automotives, aircraft, rocket engines, and defense manufacturing,” Airlangga told the press in Jakarta.

Airlangga said the sovereign wealth fund Danantara had entered talks with the US side in a business-to-business format. Danantara manages Indonesia’s state-owned enterprises, with MIND ID being the core mining business. The local arm of the US mining giant Freeport is a MIND ID subsidiary. Freeport’s presence in Indonesia dates back to 1967, and the company mines one of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits. The company has also invested in a $3.7 billion copper smelter in East Java’s Gresik.

“This shows that critical mineral partnership is nothing new,” Airlangga said, while signaling Washington’s interest in nickel and other rare earths.

The minister mentioned Vale Indonesia, the nickel miner under MIND ID. He also hinted that the partnership could clear the way for Michigan-based auto giant Ford and Elon Musk’s electric carmaker Tesla to buy Indonesian minerals for batteries. Airlangga did not go into the technical details of this critical mineral cooperation.

Nickel is an essential input in aerospace alloys as well as chemicals for lithium-ion batteries.

Under Trump 2.0, the world’s richest country has been beefing up its defense investments. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act set aside $7.5 billion in critical minerals funding for the defense department. This includes a $2 billion investment to expand the metals stockpile, and some $5 billion to invest in supply chains. This stockpile aims to make sure that the US has access to the necessary defense materials in times of emergencies.

Back in July, Trump described Indonesia as “very strong” in copper, and the trade deal would let his country have “full access” to the mineral.

“Indonesia has some great products. They have very valuable earths and various other materials. One of the things that you know they are known for is very high-quality copper, which we will be using,” Trump said at the time.

The White House also unveiled a framework for Washington's upcoming trade deal that same month. The July document wrote that Indonesia would “remove restrictions on exports to the US of industrial commodities, including critical minerals”. The trade deal negotiations all started when Trump unveiled a tariff campaign against Indonesia and the rest of the world in April.