A “historical economic partnership?” What we know about Trump's Ukraine Mineral Agreement

Cnn
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Ukraine has managed to argue some cheaper terms from the USA before signing the long -awaited mineral contract on Wednesday.

The agreement on natural resources was finally made on Wednesday after weeks of tense negotiations, which sometimes hired Washington for Ukraine.

Kyiv finally convinced the US President Donald Trump to fall some of his most important demands, but did not make the American security guarantees part of the agreement.

The Ukrainian officials observed the final agreement as the same partnership between Kyiv and Washington – a remarkable shift by some of the earlier designs described by the Ukrainian leader President Volodymyr Zelensky than the USA to sell “my country”.

The signed deal of CNN actually seems to be cheaper for Ukraine than some of the previous versions.

It is crucial that Kyiv does not reimburse the USA for the help already received – an important concession from Trump that has long “repaid” the USA as Ukraine.

Washington initially requested a share of 500 billion US dollars in the rare earths and other minerals in Ukraine in exchange for the help already made to Kyiv. When Zelensky rejected this idea, Trump called him “a dictator”.

Instead, the agreement stated on Wednesday states that future American military support in Ukraine as part of the US investment will count into a joint reconstruction investment fund that will incorporate money into the natural resources of Ukraine.

The deal gives the USA preferred but not exclusive legal rights for mineral extraction in Ukraine and says that Kyiv will have the last word about what and where is broken down. Ukraine will also keep ownership of the underground.

“All resources in our field and in our territorial waters belong to Ukraine. It is the Ukrainian state that determines where and what is to be extracted,” said Ukrainian Minister of Economic Affairs Yulia Svyrydenko, who signed the deal for her country.

In a victory for Ukraine, the deal also accepts a strong language in the war with Russia itself. It shows in Moscow as an attacker in the conflict and shows from some of the previous false statements from Trump about Ukraine and Zelensky who are responsible for the war.

In the deal, the goal of the agreement is also presented as “peaceful, sovereign and resistant Ukraine” – a remarkable step by Trump at the beginning of this year that “Ukraine could one day be Russia”.

The door for the potential future membership of Ukraine in the European Union remains open and states that investments in accordance with Ukraine's obligations as an EU candidate state must be made. If Ukraine would join the block in the future, this deal would be negotiated “in good faith”.

However, the conditions of the agreement also show that the United States has secured a variety of advantages.

The US Finance Minister Scott Bessent described it as a “historical economic partnership” and said in a statement that “Russia clearly signals that the Trump government is taking on a peace process that concentrates on a free, sovereign and successful Ukraine in the long term.”

Ukraine has reduced its most important demand that the United States grants security guarantees as part of this agreement. It was this requirement that ultimately led to the Shouty meeting between Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office in February.

Trump then refused to grant security guarantees and said he wanted to sign Ukraine first and later talk about guarantees.

At that time Zelensky rejected, but the Ukrainian officials have announced since then that the US investments and the presence of American companies in Ukraine Washington will be more interested in the security of Ukraine.

Experts agree. On Thursday, Liam Peach and Hamad Hussain, economist of Capital Economics, wrote in a evidence of analysts that the agreement “offers a certain certainty that the Trump government does not plan to give up Ukraine as a whole”, since they determine the economic interests of the USA in Ukraine.

In the agreement determined by CNN, it is also stipulated that the profits and other payments made as part of the contract are tax -free and are not subject to taxes or obligations in Ukraine.

If a conflict between the wording of the agreement and the law of Ukraine arises, the deal will have a legal precedent.