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The US finance minister defended Donald Trump’s advance on an agreement with Ukraine about the development of his natural resources and critical minerals. The plan would refuel the growth of the post -war period in the country and do not include any economic pressure with compulsory purposes.
Scott Besent’s comments in one Operation for the Financial Times Come, as the Trump administration officers try to win what you claim to be an economic partnership with Kyiv as part of your wider diplomatic advance, to convey a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
The Ukrainian officials have so far rejected the US claims according to such an agreement, but US officials have intensive pressure on Kyiv in their initiative after a deal.
Officials in Kyiv believe that Trump’s rush against the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who described him as a dictator and the Ukraine, not Russia, started Kyiv in a mineral agreement.
In the operating ED, Bessent exhibited some details of the US proposal. He said that the income of Ukraine from “natural resources, infrastructure and other assets” would be assigned “a fund that focuses on the long-term reconstruction and development of Ukraine, in which the United States will have economic and governance rights in these future investments will have “.
However, Bessent did not say how much of the proceeds from the mineral extraction would be assigned to the fund or how much would be paid to the USA. Trump handed over the mineral agreement to ensure that Ukraine repay previous US military aid.
An earlier draft of the agreement reported by the Ukrainian media, of which the Ukrainian officials were correct, said that the fund would be set up “with the burden (legal entitlement) of these income in favor of the United States.
It also means that the United States would decide how much of the fund would be paid out for reconstruction projects.
In his surgical ed, Bessent said that the agreement would include “high standards for transparency, accountability, corporate management and legal framework conditions and insider deals”.
The US Finance Minister traveled to Ukraine on his first international journey at the beginning of this month to coordinate the deal Volodymyr ZelenskyyThe President.
While US officials, including Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor, believe that a deal is tight, the Ukrainian officials are better guarded.
“The design on the table now needs more work,” said a person who is involved in negotiations. “We see many Ukraine obligations there and very weak things (offered) from the American side, so that the draft is not ready for today to be accepted at the President’s level.”
Negotiations went into the morning until the third day early and will continue on Saturday and probably until Sunday.
Zelenskyy said that Bessen’s original proposal was not in the interest of Ukraine, since it demanded 50 percent of the rights to the rare earth and critical minerals of the country in exchange for previous military aid and contained no offers for future support.
Officials from the high -ranking Ukrainians said that they had spent the past week of creating a counter -order that they had discussed on Thursday and Friday in Kyiv with the US special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
Zelenskyy wants the Trump administration to provide security guarantees in a new proposal before registering.
In the OP-ET, Bessent said that the conditions of the deal would “ensure that countries that do not contribute to the defense of the sovereignty of Ukraine could not benefit from reorganizing or these systems”.
Bessent also suggested that the United States did not try to take control of the natural resources of Ukraine. “Let us be clear what this is not. The United States would not have physical assets in Ukraine. It would not saddle Ukraine with more debts either. This type of economic pressure, while used by other global actors, would neither drive American nor Ukrainian interests ahead, ”he wrote.
