After verbal spat with President Zelensky, Donald Trump to sign rare earth mineral deal with Ukraine shortly

Before signing an executive order to eliminate the Department of Education, Trump shared a positive outlook regarding a possible ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Washington DC: Days after a verbal spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, United States President Donald Trump on Thursday (local time) informed that he would be’very shortly’ signing a minerals and natural resources deal with the war-torn country. This deal would give America a partial share of profits from resource extraction. Notably, both countries recently announced that they would soon finalise a major agreement to develop the war-torn country’s critical mineral resources. The US President views it as a repayment from Ukraine to America for its support, Reuters reported.

Before signing an executive order to eliminate the Department of Education, Trump shared a positive outlook regarding a possible ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war. He stated, “Our country is doing very well. Things are–as you can see–doing quite well.” Additionally, Trump revealed that he had signed an executive order aimed at increasing the production of essential minerals in the United States.

“Moments ago, I signed an executive order to dramatically increase production of critical minerals and rare earths. It’s a big thing in this country. We’re also signing agreements in various locations to unlock rare earths and minerals, and lots of other things all over the world, but in particular, Ukraine,” he said.

According to the World Economic Forum, while China may not have the largest reserves of rare earth minerals, it dominates the refining process, making it the world’s largest importer of critical minerals, which it processes and supplies globally. The United States, India, and Germany follow China as major importers, while the United States, Chile, Switzerland, and Australia have recorded significant increases in exports of raw, semi-processed, or processed critical minerals.

Referring to his recent phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, Trump expressed hope for an end to the ongoing conflict.

“We’re doing very well with regard to Ukraine and Russia, and one of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earth with Ukraine. They have tremendous value in rare earth minerals. We appreciate that. We spoke yesterday with President Putin and President Zelenskyy, and we would love to see this come to an end. I think we’re doing pretty well in that regard. Hopefully, we can save thousands of people a week from dying. They’re dying so unnecessarily, and I believe we’ll get it done. We’ll see what happens, but I believe we’ll get it done,” he said.

At a press briefing on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the administration had “moved beyond the economic minerals deal.”

Leavitt stated that the minerals agreement served as the initial framework discussed during the well-publicized meeting between President Zelenskyy and President Trump in the Oval Office. The current focus is now on achieving a long-term peace agreement. Additionally, Trump recently signed a proclamation commemorating the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s renowned speech to the Second Virginia Convention. He remarked, “I just want to announce that I signed a proclamation a few moments ago honoring the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s famous speech, where he uttered the well-known phrase: ‘Give me liberty or give me death.'”

(with ANI inputs)