'It can be a big success': Zelensky hopes to meet Trump in US this Friday
World | Trump is demanding to strike a deal with Ukraine to give access to its rare earth minerals as compensation for receiving aid of billions of dollars from the US under the presidency of former president Joe Biden amid war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday (Feb 26) that he hoped to visit Washington on Friday to meet President Donald Trump and discuss striking a minerals deal with the United States.
Trump is demanding to strike a deal with Ukraine to give access to its rare earth minerals as compensation for receiving aid of billions of dollars from the US under the presidency of former president Joe Biden amid war.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Tuesday (Feb 25) that Kyiv agreed on the terms of the deal with the US to jointly develop the mineral resources of the country. According to the official, Zelensky could sign the agreement as early as Friday (Feb 28) in Washington.
“I would like to have this visit very much,” Zelensky told reporters on Wednesday (Feb 26).
“This is just a start, a framework, it can be a big success. The success will depend on our conversation with President Trump,” the Ukrainian president added.
Kyiv would not be ‘a debtor’
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Zelensky said that revenues generated under the resources deal would be deposited in a fund shared by Ukraine and the US. He added that Kyiv would not be “a debtor” over war aid provided to his country under the Biden administration.
“This would be unfair to us,” Zelensky said.
He also expressed that he would ask Trump whether Washington would stop the aid and whether Ukraine could still purchase weapons from the US.
Kyiv hopes the deal will improve relations between the two nations, which have recently become sour amid the war of the world between the two presidents.
Ukraine also said it wants security guarantees, although the current proposal of the deal does not include any specific security commitments to the United States, according to a senior Ukrainian official, reported AFP.
(With inputs from agencies)
