Name: US ready to sign Ukraine minerals deal, Trump administration says | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-05-03T00:16:35.000Z
Duration: 6 min 17 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The U.S. says it's ready to sign a much-anticipated resources deal with Ukraine.

There's no clarity on when it will be signed, although the Ukrainian economy minister is on her way to Washington.

The deal is said to provide for a 50-50 joint economic fund between Kiev and Washington.

President Trump was asked this question by journalists at his cabinet meeting.

The Ukraine minerals deal is about to be signed in the next 24 hours or so.

And if it's true, has the deal changed at all from the last time we heard about it?

Well, I'll ask Scott to answer the question because he's responsible for it.

Ukrainians decided last night to make some last-minute changes.

We're sure that they will reconsider that, and we are ready to sign this afternoon, if they are.

Can you talk about those last-minute changes, what was removed or put into place?

It's the same agreement that we agreed to on the weekend.

That was Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary.

And President Trump went on to talk further about the deal and what he's looking for.

I didn't want to make a complicated deal.

I didn't want to make a deal that couldn't be made because Ukraine doesn't have very much money.

They're going through a very bad period of time.

So I said, well, we want something for our efforts beyond what you would think would be acceptable.

As you know, we're looking for Rare Earth all the time.

And we made a deal where our money is secure, where we can start digging and doing what we have to do.

It's also good for them because you'll have an American presence at the site, Chris.

And the American presence will, I think, keep a lot of bad actors out of the country or certainly out of the area where we're doing the digging.

So we made a deal and I assume they're going to honour the deal.

I put Scott in charge and Scott's done it beautifully, but we haven't really seen the fruits of that deal yet.

Speaking on Ukrainian national television earlier, Denis Shmihal said the agreement would benefit both parties.

We are finalising details with our US colleagues.

It is a real strategic deal on creating a partnership investment fund.

It is a good, equal, international deal about joint investments into the development and restoration of Ukraine.

As soon as all the details are finalised, in the nearest future, I hope within 24 hours, the deal will be signed.

Now, let's speak to Duncan Wood, who's president of Hearst International Consulting and an expert on critical minerals and energy geopolitics.

Duncan, thank you very much for joining us.

Why is the United States so keen on striking a deal like this?

I mean, I think that this is a surprise to some people.

Obviously, it's been in the works for a while.

I think the United States is very, very keen on this for a number of reasons.

President Trump has promised, of course, that he would end the conflict in Ukraine rapidly.

He's also promised that he'll get the Ukrainians to pay for a lot of the costs of the United States support to Ukraine over the years.

The deal itself, of course, comes just only days after that Trump-Zelensky meeting at the Vatican.

It's a huge diplomatic win for Zelensky after that nightmarish visit to the Oval Office a few weeks ago.

And, of course, Trump himself is looking for a diplomatic win at this point in time.

With the completion of his first 100 days and those less than flattering polls that we've seen come out, this is a big announcement for him.

And I guess the context is also important from Russia.

Trump has expressed increasing irritation with Vladimir Putin.

And for the first time, he actually engaged in open criticism of Russia's attacks on Ukraine in recent days.

And now, of course, as we just heard, Trump is talking about a U.S. presence in Ukraine that will deter bad actors.

So this is, I think, a major announcement.

A word of caution with the Trump administration.

You never quite know what's going to happen next.

And there could be many a slip, twist, cup and lip.

But it looks like this is going to move ahead.

What might the reaction be from Moscow and Beijing, for that matter?

Well, I think there are two different reactions there.

From Moscow, it's going to be very much a sense of deep disappointment that the United States is getting closer to Zelensky and the Ukrainian people.

It really does begin to build on the relationship that was there under Biden, which we thought was disappearing.

But now it seems as though with that statement about a U.S. presence in Ukraine, that Trump is saying, we want to get closer.

We want to actually be part of this situation.

So from Moscow, there's going to be a lot of disappointment and maybe some concern about that.

Because included in the agreement is the idea of a broader strategic alignment between the United States and Ukraine.

I think from China, it's a different reaction.

This is all part of a broader effort on the part of the United States government to diversify its critical minerals supply chains away from China, where most of the world's critical minerals, if they're not mined, of course, but they are sent there for processing and refining.

Even critical minerals such as rare earths that are extracted here in the United States go to China for processing.

And so that's part of the deal, which isn't actually discussed.

Where are these critical minerals going to be processed?

So the Chinese will be concerned about this.

But for the time being, they maintain a near monopoly on the processing and refining of critical minerals.

So at the moment, anything that comes out of Ukraine is likely to head to China for processing and refining, maintaining that Chinese stranglehold on the supply chain.

Duncan Wood from Hearst International Consulting.