"Nothing like a colonial agreement": the government disclosed details of negotiations with the US on rare earth metals

Ukraine and the United States can create an investment fund that will be filled equally. The Ukrainian government proposes to transfer future revenues from the extraction of critical minerals to the fund.

According to Interfax-Ukraine, this was stated by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the YES meeting "Three Years – Time to Win." According to him, Ukraine does not discuss any issue of critical minerals outside the context of security guarantees and a peace plan and is currently discussing two points with the United States: security guarantees and economic cooperation.

In the area of economic cooperation, various areas are being discussed, including recovery. "We offer the same conditions for European partners, for G7 partners, that is, for everyone who is involved in supporting Ukraine during these three years," Shmyhal said.

As for the joint investment fund, Ukraine plans to invest future revenues from the extraction of critical raw materials by state-owned enterprises. In the future, they will be used to address security and economic issues and finance infrastructure projects.

"It will be about 50-50 contributions to this kind of fund. Thus, this fund will be managed by both the governments of Ukraine and the United States," the Prime Minister explained.

The project is currently at the stage of drafting an agreement of intent to create such an investment fund."Nothing like a colonial agreement is being discussed. Absolutely, I assure you once again," Shmyhal emphasized.

He also noted that this document envisages Ukraine's European integration, so it does not contradict the existing association agreement with the European Union, as well as agreements with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. "We have a very constructive dialog now. The United States is our partner, and there is no doubt about it," the Prime Minister emphasized.

Deposits of 22 of the 30 critical minerals that Europe is interested in have already been explored, and several memorandums have been signed with the EU. In particular, 3-4 years ago, Ukraine signed agreements to join some commodity alliances in the EU.

"First of all, we need to extract it, and then estimate how much it costs. And this is not for one decade of work," he added.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, according to Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine and the United States have already entered the final phase of negotiations on the minerals agreement. Almost all the key details of the document have been agreed upon, and the Ukrainian side characterizes the negotiations as constructive.

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