WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal is a full economic partnership that will allow President Donald Trump to negotiate with Russia on a stronger basis, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday.
The deal, signed on Wednesday, will give the United States 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.
It was signed in Washington after months of sometimes fraught negotiations, with uncertainty persisting until the last moment with word of an eleventh-hour snag.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, David Lawder; Editing by Gareth Jones)
