The US is opposed to including security guarantees in the agreement with Ukraine on rare earth metals.
This is reported by CNN, citing sources.
A revised draft of the Ukrainian-American resource agreement was presented in Washington and focuses on the creation of a corresponding fund. Problematic technical details, including security guarantees, have been left for further discussion, the channelʼs source says.
According to the media source, "the American side is very strongly opposed to including security guarantees", and Kyiv hopes that this point will be discussed during the upcoming meeting between Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump.
"From our side, everything is ready. We have completed work on the project. We have done everything possible to make the conditions acceptable. As a result, we are talking about a framework agreement on the creation of a reconstruction fund for Ukraine. A separate agreement is envisaged on how it will work," says a Ukrainian source.
What kind of agreement on Ukrainian minerals?
The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent brought a pilot draft of a minerals agreement to Ukraine on February 12. Washington had hoped that Kyiv would sign it immediately. President Zelensky said that he had banned the agreement from being signed because it would not protect Ukraine’s interests — it had no connection to investments, profits, or security guarantees.
Previously, Trump had stated that Ukraine had "essentially agreed" to transfer half a trillion dollars worth of rare earth metals to Washington as payment for American military aid.
Ukraine is ready to sign an agreement on rare earth metals, but Kyiv needs security guarantees, and they were not in the agreement. Zelensky added: "The document was clear in only one thing — we must give 50% of everything that is listed there."
After refusing to sign the document, Washington made the agreement even tougher, writes the NYT. Now the US demands 100% of revenues from natural resources, including minerals, gas and oil, as well as revenues from ports and other infrastructure.
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