Trump Says US-Ukraine Minerals Deal To Be Signed ‘Next Thursday’
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US President Donald Trump announced a minerals agreement with Ukraine to be signed next Thursday, during meetings with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
US President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington, DC, US. (IMAGE: REUTERS)
US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that a minerals agreement between the United States and Ukraine will be signed next Thursday, during a series of meetings with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“We have a minerals deal which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday… next Thursday. Soon. And I assume they’re going to live up to the deal. So we’ll see. But we have a deal on that,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned that Ukraine and the US could sign an online memorandum of intent on Thursday regarding the minerals deal currently being negotiated by the two nations.
President Trump has advocated for a deal granting the United States privileged access to Ukraine’s natural resources and critical minerals, which he considers repayment for military aid provided by Washington to Ukraine during Joe Biden’s presidency.
The Ukrainian delegation travelled to Washington at the end of last week for negotiations after the Trump administration proposed a new, more comprehensive deal. The initial framework agreement that was reached has not yet been signed.
“This is a memorandum of intent. We have positive, constructive intentions,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.
He further stated that the offer to sign the memorandum before the comprehensive deal, which would require ratification by the Ukrainian parliament, came from the US side.
Ukraine’s economy minister mentioned that Kyiv and Washington made significant progress in their discussions, and the memorandum is the first stage to document this progress.
Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko on Wednesday took to social media to say that Ukraine and the United States have made “substantial progress” in their talks and said that the nation would sign a deal soon without giving a timeframe.
The United States has reduced its cost estimate for the assistance provided to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022 to about $100 billion from $300 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Last month, the Trump administration proposed a new, more expansive minerals deal, which gives Ukraine no future security guarantees but requires it to place in a joint investment fund all income from the exploitation of natural resources by state and private enterprises across Ukrainian territory.
(with Reuters and AFP inputs)
- Location :
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)