Quotes
President Zelenskyy and his team saw that the issue of raw materials could be one of the elements of an agreement with us to create resilience. So, President Trump did not completely invent this – it was the Ukrainians themselves who initiated it. We will need a range of key raw materials for our own weapons systems not just next year but over the next 30-40 years."
Quote from Lecornu
Trump is transactional, so Putin — understanding that — has come up with this countermove
a former US diplomat told NBC News
We are looking at very unclear, very shadowy dealings, and there are many questions about this deal particularly in the state of war,
said Petrov
Potentially, (gaining an upper hand on Beijing) is what the US administration is trying to do – play the Ukrainian natural resources against what China may have offered to the US economy,
said Leonid Petrov, senior lecturer and dean of business and management at the International College of Management, SydneyUltimately, we don’t know what’s underground with much detail in Ukraine. The majority of Ukraine was mapped 30 to 60 years ago by the Soviet Union, and there's not a lot of updated data mapping,
said Baskaran, who is director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at US-based think tank Center for Strategic and International StudiesWhat we have now essentially is an agreement without actually understanding what is economically viable to mine. Just because you have a resource doesn't make it competitive to mine,
she told CNA’s Asia First programmeThis is not a short-term (project) that, by the end of Trump's term, we're going to see minerals coming this way. But again, remember that all minerals policy is long term,
she addedWe understand that Trump, who started the trade war with China, is now facing the interruption of supplies of rare earth metals from China,
he addedUkraine's deposits of rare earth elements might not be profitable to extract
S&P said
There are many deposits of interest in Ukraine,
BRGM told AFPUkraine has several deposits containing rare earth elements" but none of these deposits have been mined
said Elena Safirova, a Ukraine specialist at the US Geological SurveyTo the credit of the first Trump administration, they have always put critical minerals as a very important policy priority because they knew they were so heavily reliant on China,
Moerenhout said
Ukraine is a significant global supplier of titanium and is a potential source of over 20 critical raw materials."
The European Commission has saidIt’s one thing to have a deal that talks about how might we manage their extraction and their revenue,
Moerenhout said of the agreement
Russia is one of the undisputed leaders in terms of reserves of these rare and rare-earth metals,
Putin told state media correspondent Pavel Zarubin
There is much to think about here, as well as joint work on rare and rare-earth metals, and in other areas, including, for example, energy,
Putin said.jpg)
They are very close to a final deal,
said the president, who was meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office on MondayIn fact, he may come in this week or next week to sign the agreement, which would be nice, I'd love to meet him. Would meet at the Oval Office,
Trump saidWe certainly have a bigger amount. I want to emphasise this: there are more resources of this kind [in Russian] than Ukraine."
Putin:We would be ready to offer [cooperation] to our American partners—when I say 'partners,' I mean not only administrative and government structures, but also companies—if they showed interest in working together,
said Putin