In a nod to Washington, Qatar has agreed to buy a $180 million stake in TechMet, an Irish mining investment firm backed by the U.S. International Development Finance Corp.

The move, carried out through the Qatar Investment Authority, is designed to loosen China’s dominance of minerals critical to generating sustainable energy and is the first such collaboration between a western and Gulf state, the Financial Times reports. 

The Biden administration has been trying to overtake China in the market for lithium, cobalt and other minerals used to power electric cars, making the objective a priority in its campaign to switch to renewable power, according to the newspaper.

Part of those efforts has been to persuade Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE to invest in U.S. initiatives to extract and process critical minerals for industrial use, the FT said. It notes the Gulf states all seek to become players in the critical minerals market, using their neutrality in the U.S.-China standoff to their advantage.