CNN reported that the United States and Ukraine have signed a “economic participation agreement”, which in exchange for creating an investment fund in the country, provides access to Washington to the rare earth minerals of Ukraine.
Since President Donald Trump assumed the position in January, the US and Ukraine are trying to sign an agreement on natural resources. The deal between the two countries comes after a thorough conversation of weeks which became bitter several times and temporarily derailed with American aid in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, the US Treasury Department said the two countries signed the agreement. In a statement, American Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said, “As the President has said, the United States is committed to helping to facilitate the end of this cruel and insensitive war.”
He said, “The agreement clearly indicates to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process that focuses on an independent, sovereign and rich Ukraine, which is in the long term,” CNN said.
He said, “And to be clear, any state or person who finished or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s economy minister Yulia Savidenco was in the US to sign the agreement on behalf of the Ukrainian government.
In a post on X, Svyrydenko said, “On behalf of the Government of Ukraine, I signed the agreement on the establishment of the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. Together with the United States, we are building funds that will attract global investment in our country.”
In the post, he said, “This is the Ukrainian state that determines what and where to extract. Subsyl lives under Ukrainian ownership – it is clearly established in the agreement.”
The two countries signed the deal a few hours after the last minute disagreement, which the documents had threatened to derail the agreement on Wednesday.
During the visit to the US in February, Ukrainian President Volodimier Zelanski was expected to sign the agreement. However, the agreement was not signed after a cut in his journey after a controversial oval office meeting.
The major glued points of the dialogue included the question of safety guarantee and whether the US would provide them as part of the agreement. Initially, Trump refused, saying that he wanted Ukraine to sign the first deal and later talk about the safety guarantee, CNN said.
At that time, Zelansky asked the draft agreement to “sell” his nation. Since then, Ukrainian officials indicated that they believed that American investment and the presence of American firms in Ukraine
We are more interested in the protection of Ukraine.
Shortly after his visit, Trump ordered Ukraine to suspend American aid. Now aid has been restored. However, his decision became a major wake-up call for Ukraine’s European colleagues who vowed to help Ukraine.
Trump has a large -scale agreement as “Payment back” as Ukraine, which has been provided by the US to Ukraine as Russia initiated its military action in Ukraine in 2022.
The details of the agreement have not been publicly disclosed. However, Ukraine Prime Minister Dennis Shamil said on Sunday that the agreement “would not include the assistance provided before its signature,” CNN said.
Speaking on Wednesday, he called the deal “a strategic agreement on the establishment of an investment partnership fund”. He added, “This is actually a uniform and beneficial international agreement between the US and the Ukrainian governments on joint investment in Ukraine’s development and recovery.”
Shamil said that under the deal, the US and Ukraine would create a joint investment fund in Ukraine, with the same contribution from both and the same distribution of management shares between them. He said, “The American side can also count new, I emphasize Ukraine on new, military aid as contributing to this fund.” (AI)