The United States and Ukraine signed an agreement on Wednesday regarding access to Ukraine’s natural resources, the U.S. Treasury Department announced.
According to CNN, the U.S. and Ukraine have signed an “economic partnership agreement” that will grant Washington access to Kyiv’s rare earth minerals in exchange for the establishment of an investment fund in Ukraine.
“As the President (Donald Trump) has said, the United States is committed to providing assistance to end this brutal and senseless war (in Ukraine),” stated Treasury Secretary Scott Besent in a press release.
He emphasized that the agreement clearly signals to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a long-term peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine.
“And to be clear – no state or person who has financed or supplied Russia’s war machine will be allowed to benefit from Ukraine’s reconstruction,” he underscored.
Ukraine’s Minister of Economy, Yuliia Svyrydenko, signed the agreement in Washington on behalf of the Ukrainian government.
Among the provisions of the agreement is that “full ownership and control” remain in the hands of Ukraine, she wrote on X.
“All resources on our territory and in international waters belong to Ukraine. It is the Ukrainian state that determines what and where should be extracted. The subsoil remains the property of Ukraine – this is clearly established by the Agreement,” she stated.
The agreement was signed after last-minute disagreements nearly prevented the documents from being signed yesterday.
According to a source familiar with the agreement, Kyiv aims to solidify the support of U.S. President Donald Trump in negotiations for a ceasefire with Russia through this move, Bloomberg reports.
The agreement will grant the United States privileged access to new investment projects for the development of Ukraine’s natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil, and natural gas, Bloomberg reported.
The agreement is considered crucial for “fostering Trump’s goodwill toward Kyiv” as his administration seeks to end the war that began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine over three years ago.
FIND OUT MORE IN ENGLISH:
Following weeks of negotiations between Ukrainian and American officials on the text, momentum toward a breakthrough developed earlier this week, with Ukrainian negotiators visiting Washington to finalize the details.
The two sides agreed on the main agreement but discussed technical details outlined in separate texts.
Ukrainian officials had hoped to sign a comprehensive agreement and work out the details later, but the U.S. insisted that all components be agreed upon jointly, according to a person familiar with the situation.
“We’ve made a deal where our money is safe, where we can start digging and doing what we have to do,” Trump said at a White House cabinet meeting earlier yesterday.
He emphasized that it is also good for Ukraine “because they’ll have an American presence on site, and the American presence will keep a lot of bad actors out of the country or out of the areas where we’re doing the digging.”
MORE TOPICS:
COLUMN, KOVAČEVIĆ: On the police, batons, revolution and its children…
ALL MEMBERS OF OUR TEAM WON MEDALS: Six medals for Serbia at the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad!
Source: N1, Foto: AP Photo / Ben Curtis