Ukraine balks at signing Trump deal to hand over its mineral wealth
Ukraine balks at signing Trump deal to hand over its mineral wealth
Summary
Ukraine is hesitating to sign a U.S.-backed deal that would grant American companies access to 50% of its rare earth minerals in exchange for continued military support.
President Zelenskyy cited legal concerns and the lack of security guarantees.
The deal, pushed by Trump allies, aims to showcase Ukraine’s value to U.S. interests while reducing reliance on Chinese minerals.
However, Kyiv’s 2021 strategic partnership with the EU complicates negotiations, as European leaders resist surrendering shared resources to Washington. Talks remain ongoing.
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What happens if he signs the deal, gets the aid, beats Russia back and reneges? Serious question.
"American warship, go fuck yourself."
The US already abandoned their promise to protect Ukraine from a Russian invasion after they agreed to give up their nuclear arsenal, so I can't imagine why they would trust us this time especially with a nutjob like Trump at the helm.
The US promised they would not invade Ukraine, but they never promised they would protect Ukraine.
The US promised to aid Ukraine should they ever be invaded after giving up their nuclear arms. Go read the Budapest Memorandum, specifically section 4.
Section 4:
The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and The United States of America reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used
The US promised to seek action from the UN Security Council if Ukraine suffered or was threatened with nuclear attack.
Ukraine hasn't suffered a nuclear attack. Even so, the US did seek action from the Security Council, but it was predictably vetoed by Russia.
Commas. "object of act of aggression" and "object of threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used" are two different, independent, conditions.
And btw China seems to be enforcing the latter. They independently gave Ukraine nuclear guarantees, just shy of calling it a nuclear umbrella, and there has been a suspicious absence of nuclear threats against Ukraine while there's no shortage of Russian threats against NATO.
There are no commas in the text. And even under your interpretation, the US is only obligated to seek action by the UN Security Council. They have done so.
American promises aren't worth shit. Just ask the Native Americans, the Kurds, and probably a bunch more countries.
Like a reasonable person who sees a proposal with huge future impact - he is likely consulting lawyers ("is this permissible by law?") and other politicians ("is this a good move currently or strategically?").
Then comes time to present counter-proposals. One of them may be "we get considerably more help from Europe and they don't ask for half of the country's minerals - on this background, let's revise assistance and security guarantees upwards".
Trump's current proposal is such a poorly chosen one that one could show it to Xi and ask "for this extreme price, would you reign in your vassal named Putin, and cut exports of anything with a microchip into Russia?".