Paris, Feb 27 (IANS) Paris has been in talks with Kyiv since October about using Ukrainian minerals for France’s defence industry, French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Thursday.
Speaking to France Info radio, Lecornu said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made “a certain number of proposals not only to the United States but also to France.”
The French minister said the French defence industry needs access to a number of “very key” raw materials for the next 30 or 40 years.
He noted that French President Emmanuel Macron asked him to start the discussion with the Ukrainian side in October 2024 to “diversify” France’s import of key raw materials.
“Whether we like it or not, economic issues are always intertwined with military, strategic or security issues,” he said, Xinhua news agency reported.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced Wednesday that Kyiv and Washington had finalised a minerals deal.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he’s “OK” with a possible visit to Washington by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which the two presidents are set to sign a deal that gives the United States a cut of Ukraine’s mineral wealth.
“I hear that he’s coming on Friday. Certainly, it’s OK with me if he’d like to. And he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that’s a big deal, very big deal,” said Trump when speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.
“It could be a trillion-dollar deal. It could be whatever, but it’s rare earths and other things,” Trump said.
According to US media reports, Ukraine agreed to the final version of the draft deal that the United States proposed Tuesday.
With the exact terms of the final deal still unclear, the draft discussed Tuesday included the establishment of a fund to be jointly owned by Ukraine and the United States, to which Ukraine will contribute 50 per cent of its revenues from the future monetization of natural resources, including critical minerals, oil and gas, according to reports by US media.
–IANS
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