US President Donald Trump stated on Thursday that an agreement between the United States and Ukraine on rare earth metals will be signed “very soon.” “We are doing very well on the issue of Russia and Ukraine,” he assessed.
“One of the things we are doing is signing a rare earth agreement with Ukraine very soon, which has deposits of tremendous value,” said the US president, as quoted by CNN.
Trump referred to his phone calls this week with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and separately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, discussing the possibility of ending the war. “We would like to see it end, and I think we are doing well on that. I believe we will get it done. We’ll see what happens,” he declared.
The agreement on US access to mineral resources, including rare earth metals, was intended by Trump to be a form of payment for the assistance the United States has provided to Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion. Rare earth metals play a crucial role in modern industries, including the production of mobile phones, wind turbines, and missile systems.
The mineral agreement was supposed to be signed in February during Zelensky’s visit to Washington. However, the meeting between the Ukrainian president, Trump, and Vice President J.D. Vance in the Oval Office of the White House ended in an unprecedented argument, with the Ukrainian delegation being asked to leave, and the agreement remained unsigned.
In the White House statement following Wednesday’s call between Trump and Zelensky, there was no mention of the mineral agreement. Instead, it was noted that Trump raised the issue of Ukraine’s energy grid and nuclear power plants. He suggested that the United States could be “very helpful” in managing the plants and that taking over such facilities would be “the best protection for this infrastructure.”