Ukraine and US poised for key talks on mineral accord
Technical consultations with the USA regarding the mineral agreement will take place on Friday in Washington, with teams from our ministries of justice and economy present, as informed by Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, on Thursday.
"I am not in a position to review any details because the meeting will only take place tomorrow; I will be able to comment tomorrow," stated Stefanishyna at a press conference in Brussels.
Technical consultations with the USA on the mineral agreement commence
"Nothing... can be negotiated with Ukraine in a way that will undermine the existing commitments and obligations Ukraine has, including financial ones. This is something that is not subjected to any negotiation format," emphasised the Deputy Prime Minister. The Ukraine Facility is an EU support program for Kyiv that aims to help Ukraine maintain financial stability, rebuild its economy, and modernize the country. This includes macro-financial assistance and cooperation with the IMF.
Stefanishyna recalled that the new agreement proposal with the USA, like the previous framework agreement, was proposed by the American side.
She noted that the aim of the authorities in Kyiv is to develop international agreements that encourage foreign investors to invest their capital in Ukraine.
"The text presented to Ukraine does not fully reflect Ukraine’s approach, so our technical team will work on Friday to balance it, which will allow us to have very simple, clear principles on which the future text of the agreement will be based," declared Stefanishyna.
Simultaneously, she emphasised that the negotiating team views the agreement with the USA as a significant opportunity for Ukraine.
New agreement proposal
Earlier, on 1st April, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Andriy Sybiha, informed that the authorities in Kyiv received a new mineral agreement proposal from the US administration.
According to reports from sources such as the "Financial Times" and "Bloomberg," the United States demanded that Ukraine renegotiate the previously agreed but unsigned resource agreement text. The new version proposed by the USA aims to allow Washington extensive control over the exploitation, sales, and profit-making from the exploitation of Ukraine's natural resource deposits.
According to Bloomberg, Ukraine will demand significant changes to this document because its current form may threaten Kyiv's ambitions for integration with the European Union. Furthermore, the content of the agreement suggests that Ukrainians must return the value of the financial and military aid that Washington provided since February 2022, the onset of the full-scale Russian military invasion.
