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The Trump administration’s bludgeoning of trans-Atlantic relations has made it difficult for U.S. and European officials to find much common ground—with a big exception.

In recent weeks, critical minerals have emerged as a rare area of cooperation between U.S. and European leaders, even as they clash over Greenland, the NATO alliance, and Russia’s now four-year-long invasion of Ukraine. The European Union, for example, has agreed to join forces with the United States and Japan to boost supply chain resilience; the United Kingdom and the United States have also signed a memorandum of understanding in the sector.

The Trump administration’s bludgeoning of trans-Atlantic relations has made it difficult for U.S. and European officials to find much common ground—with a big exception.

In recent weeks, critical minerals have emerged as a rare area of cooperation between U.S. and European leaders, even as they clash over Greenland, the NATO alliance, and Russia’s now four-year-long invasion of Ukraine. The European Union, for example, has agreed to join forces with the United States and Japan to boost supply chain resilience; the United Kingdom and the United States have also signed a memorandum of understanding in the sector.

The deals reflect how, as Europe also scrambles to diversify away from China, European leaders are harnessing minerals—one of their few clear shared interests with Washington—in hopes that they can help ease tensions in an otherwise fraught relationship.

“If the trans-Atlantic relationship has come under huge amounts of stress and a lot of people are worried that it could just fall apart, critical minerals [are] kind of the only thing that’s still really keeping it together,” said Tom Moerenhout, the head of the........

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