WASHINGTON, February 4. /TASS/. The United States intends to create an international alliance for the mining and production of critical minerals with domestic fixed prices, US Vice President JD Vance announced this at a ministerial meeting on critical minerals at the State Department.

He noted that the participants will establish so-called reference prices for specific minerals and maintain them at a stable level.

"These reference prices will operate as a floor maintained through adjustable tariffs to uphold pricing integrity," he said.

"We want to eliminate that problem of people flooding into our markets with cheap critical minerals to undercut our domestic manufacturers, because we know, of course, that as soon as they've undercut our domestic makers, they the domestic markers, they leave the market, and the people who undercut them then jack up the price to a completely unfair level. We're going to fix that problem together," the US Vice President added.

"Our goal within that [trading] zone is to create diverse centers of production, stable investment conditions and supply chains that are immune to the kind of external disruptions," Vance stressed.

He pointed out that of the more than 50 countries represented at the meeting, many have already expressed their desire to take part in this initiative.

"Some of you have not, and for those not yet there, we hope that today's discussions will encourage you to finalize those agreements as quickly as possible," he concluded.