The United States on Thursday announced that it has signed an economic partnership agreement with Ukraine that will provide U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for setting up a “Reconstruction Investment Fund.”
“In recognition of the significant financial and material support that the people of the United States have provided to the defense of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, this economic partnership positions our two countries to…accelerate Ukraine’s economic recovery,” the U.S. Treasury Department said.
The two countries have been in discussion for a mutual agreement for months. U.S. President Donald Trump has been attempting to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine since the start of his second presidency, calling the war unnecessary.
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote after leaving Pope Francis' funeral last week. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’
The new draft signed between Ukraine and the U.S. is to bolster the former’s recovery after Russia’s attack over the past 3 years, mentioning “mutual assets, talents, and capabilities” can expedite Kyiv’s recovery, Indian Express reported.
“Together with the United States, we are creating the Fund that will attract global investment into our country,” Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X.
An initial draft was set to be signed in February, but the process unraveled during a widely publicised televised meeting between Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, former President Donald Trump, and Vice President J.D. Vance.
Trump met Zelenskyy last week on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral. “I was telling him that it’s a very good thing that, if we produce a deal, that you sign it,” Trump said during a 카지노 사이트Nation town hall, New York Post reported.
The draft states that the U.S. will have preferential access but will not get Kyiv’s mineral wealth or gas infrastructure. The deal is to create a combined US-Ukraine investment fund for the latter's recovery which would be entitled to 50% of the profits and royalties generated from new natural resource permits issued by the Ukrainian state, according to Reuters.
