India is ramping up international partnerships to secure critical minerals — lithium, cobalt, and nickel — that underpin its clean energy ambitions, including a target of 500 GW of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030 and a 30 percent electric vehicle share in the same timeframe. The country is fully import-dependent on all three minerals, and projected battery demand could surge up to 66-fold by 2040, yet most of India's agreements with partners in Argentina, Chile, Africa, and elsewhere remain at the memorandum-of-understanding stage rather than translating into active mining or processing projects. Analysts warn that diplomatic outreach is insufficient on its own, pointing to China's control of 60–90 percent of global mineral processing capacity as a structural bottleneck, and urging India to simultaneously build domestic refining, battery manufacturing, and recycling capacity — otherwise, the country risks merely shifting its energy dependence from imported oil to imported supply chains.