Bessent hails Kyiv deal as a full partnership

Washington — US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday the minerals deal signed between the US and Ukraine is a full economic partnership that will allow US President Donald Trump to negotiate with Russia on a stronger basis.

The deal, signed on Wednesday, will give the US preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals and fund investment in Ukraine’s reconstruction.

The agreement will show the “Russian leadership that there is no daylight between the Ukrainian people and the American people, between our goals”, Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network.

“The American people don’t make any money if Ukrainians don’t prosper. So now we are fully aligned in terms of economics. And again, I think this is a strong signal to the Russian leadership, and it gives President Trump the ability to now negotiate with Russia on even a stronger basis,” he said.

“This is a total economic partnership. This isn’t just rare earth, it’s infrastructure, it’s energy. So there’s the opportunity here for both sides to really win,” Bessent added.

The accord establishes a joint investment fund for Ukraine’s reconstruction as Trump tries to secure a peace settlement in Russia’s three-year-old war in Ukraine.

The deal was signed in Washington after months of sometimes fraught negotiations, with uncertainty persisting until the last moment. 

No security guarantees

The agreement is central to Kyiv’s efforts to mend ties with Trump and the White House, which frayed after he took office in January. Ukrainian officials hope the deal will ensure continued US support for Ukraine’s defence against Russia.

Bessent and Ukrainian first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko were shown signing the agreement in an X post by the Treasury, which said the deal “clearly signals the Trump administration’s commitment to a free, sovereign, prosperous Ukraine”.

Svyrydenko wrote on X that the accord provided for Washington to contribute to the fund.

“In addition to direct financial contributions, it may also provide NEW assistance — for example air defence systems for Ukraine,” she said. Washington did not directly address that suggestion.

There was no mention of the security guarantees Ukraine had sought.

The US has been Ukraine’s single largest military donor since Russia’s 2022 invasion with aid of more than €64bn, according to the Kiel Institute in Germany.

Before the signing, Trump repeated on Wednesday that the US should get something for its aid to Kyiv, thus the effort to secure a deal for Ukraine’s plentiful deposits of rare earth minerals.

In announcing the deal, the US treasury said the partnership recognised “the significant financial and material support that the people of the US have provided to the defence of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion”. 

Debt-free deal

Svyrydenko said the accord allowed Ukraine to “determine what and where to extract” and that its subsoil remained owned by Ukraine.

Ukraine is rich in rare earth metals, which are used in consumer electronics, electric vehicles and military applications, among other things. China, which is locked in a trade war with the US, dominates global rare-earth mining.

Ukraine also has large reserves of iron, uranium and natural gas.

Svyrydenko said Ukraine has no debt obligations to the US under the agreement, a key point in the lengthy negotiations between the two countries.

The deal also complied with Ukraine’s constitution and its campaign to join the EU, key elements in Ukraine’s negotiating position, she said.

The minerals deal and US peace efforts have been negotiated separately, but reflect Washington’s approach to Ukraine and Russia.

Trump has upended US policy by softening the US stance towards Russia and sometimes falsely blaming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the war.

A draft of the US-Ukraine agreement seen by Reuters earlier on Wednesday showed Ukraine secured the removal of any requirement for it to pay back the US for past military assistance.

Reuters