Washington is "pretty close" to signing a rare earth minerals agreement with Kiev, US President Donald Trump has said.
"So, we are asking for rare earth and oil, anything we can get … So, we are getting our money back. We are going to get our money back, because it is not, it is not fair. It is just not fair, and we will see. But I think we are pretty close to a deal, and we better be close to a deal, because that has been a horrible situation," Trump said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
On February 3, US President Donald Trump mentioned that the United States anticipated Ukraine would grant access to its rare earth minerals in exchange for financial and military support. Then, on February 14, the Washington Post disclosed that during a meeting with Zelensky in Munich, US negotiators proposed he sign an agreement to transfer rights to 50% of Ukraine's yet-untapped mineral resources to the US.
Zelensky stated that he refused the proposal, believing it was not in Ukraine's interest.
On Friday, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz expressed optimism that Zelensky would soon agree to a mineral resource deal with Washington.