Bessent says Australia, India invited to G7 meeting on critical minerals

SAVAGE, Minnesota, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ​said Australia and several other ‌countries would join a meeting of finance ‌ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies that he is hosting in Washington on Monday ⁠to discuss ‌critical minerals.

Bessent said he had been pressing for a ‍separate meeting on the issue since last summer's summit of G7 leaders, ​and finance ministers had already ‌held a virtual meeting in December.

India was also invited to attend the meeting, Bessent told Reuters in an interview after touring the ⁠Minneapolis-area engineering lab ​of RV and ​boat maker Winnebago Industries. He said he was unsure if ‍it had ⁠accepted the invitation.

It was not immediately clear which other countries ⁠had been invited.

(Reporting by David Lawder; ‌writing by Andrea Shalal; editing ‌by Stephen Coates)