Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a United States bid to take ownership of about 50 per cent of the rights to his country’s rare earth minerals.
Recall that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had offered Zelenskyy the deal during a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday.
This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that the United States was owed half a trillion dollars’ worth of Ukraine’s resources in exchange for its assistance to the war-torn nation.
However, according to Financial Times, Zelenskyy wants US and European security guarantees to be tied directly to any deal on the mineral reserves.
The Ukraine leader is also keen for other countries, including EU states, to be involved in future natural resource exploitation.
But the deal proposed by Trump and delivered by Bessent only referenced the US getting Ukrainian resources in exchange for past military assistance.
The deal also did not contain any proposals for similar future assistance.
Speaking to reporters about the development in Munich on Saturday, Zelenskyy said: “We are still talking. “I have had different dialogues.”
Speaking further to reporters on the sidelines of the conference, Zelenskyy added, it was “not in our interests today . . . not in the interests of sovereign Ukraine” to agree to the United States deal as it currently stands.
