Washington DC [US], February 27 : US President Donald Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday to sign what he called "a very big agreement" to share revenue from Ukraine's rare earth mineral deposits, even though the two leaders remain far apart on whether the US will provide security guarantees for Ukraine once its war with Russia is over, Politico reported.
"It's now confirmed, and we're going to be signing an agreement," Trump said on Wednesday morning (local time) at the outset of his first Cabinet meeting at the White House, as per Politico.
Trump said that he will not be making "security guarantees to Ukraine beyond very much," suggesting European nations take that responsibility because of geographical proximity, as per CNN.
"I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We're going to have Europe do that, because it's in, you know we're talking about, Europe is their next-door neighbour, but we're going to make sure everything goes well. And as you know, we'll be making a we'll be really partnering with Ukraine, in terms of rare earth. We very much need rare earth. They have great rare earth," Trump said at his first Cabinet meeting.
Trump said that his Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright would be "working on that together," CNN quoted Trump as saying.
"The deal we're making gets us, it brings us great wealth. We get back the money that we spent, and we hope that we're going to be able to settle this up," Trump said.
Trump presented the agreement, the details of which remain unknown, as a way for the US to recoup some of the aid sent to Ukraine over the course of the three-year war. The US has sent Ukraine USD 120 billion so far. Trump has inflated the amount, falsely stating again on Wednesday that American taxpayers were on the hook for "350 billion" in aid, as per Politico.
"We've been able to make a deal where we're going to be able to get our money back," Trump said. "We're happy about it."
Zelenskyy, speaking with reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday, called the agreement "a beginning," cautioning that a lot will hinge on his conversations with Trump and the necessity for additional security guarantees, a key point of tension, Politico reported.
"I will understand everything after I talk to Trump. For me, the most important thing is to find out will the US stop military aid or not," he said. "If its stops, will we be able to buy weapons directly from the US, maybe using Russian frozen assets?" Politico quoted Zelenskyy as saying.
Trump held the first official Cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday.
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1894827717985468427
https://x.com/POTUS/status/1894826878562697483
"We put together a great Cabinet. We've been given a lot of credit for having a very successful first month, and we want to make that many years," He said in a post on X.
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