US President Joe Biden on Sunday urged world leaders to consider bolstering stockpiles critical to national security in their countries at an event on Supply Chain Resilience in Rome, the White House said in a statement.
He said to the group of world leaders at the event: "I urge all of you -- all of you -- to consider bolstering your stockpiles critical to national security in your countries. But like so many challenges today, it isn't a problem any one of our nations can solve through unilateral actions. Coordination is the key -- the reason for this meeting."
"We're going to bring our shared attention to a vital issue that is impacting on all of our countries: supply chain disruptions. Supply chains are something that most of our citizens never think twice about until something goes wrong," said Biden.
Highlighting the health crisis, Biden said, "This pandemic won't be the last global health crisis we face. We also need to increase our resilience in the face of climate change, natural disasters, and even planned attacks."
"Many of our supply chains are almost entirely owned and operated by the private sector. But government can play a key role in identifying supply chain risks and bringing the different pieces and actors together to address these vulnerabilities," he added.
Biden also announced that he is allocating additional funding to help American partners, as well as the United States, cut port congestion by slashing red tape and reducing processing times so that ships can get in and out of our ports faster.
He further announced that he is "signing an executive order that will strengthen our management of the United States defense stockpiles for minerals and materials. It'll allow us -- allow us to react and respond more quickly to shortfalls in the industrial base."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attended the Supply Chain Resilience summit hosted by US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G20 leaders' summit in Rome.
( With inputs from ANI )
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