U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he would be signing a rare earth mineral deal with Ukraine “very shortly.”
Ahead of signing an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, Trump expressed optimism about a potential ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“Our country is doing very well. Things are—as you can see—going quite well,” he said.
Trump also revealed that he had signed an executive order to boost the production of critical minerals in the United States.
“Moments ago, I signed an executive order to dramatically increase the production of critical minerals and rare earths. It’s a big deal for this country. We’re also signing agreements in various locations to unlock rare earth minerals and other resources worldwide, particularly in Ukraine,” he stated.
According to the World Economic Forum, while China may not have the largest reserves of rare earth minerals, it dominates the refining process, making it the world’s largest importer of critical minerals, which it processes and supplies globally. The United States, India, and Germany follow China as major importers, while the United States, Chile, Switzerland, and Australia have recorded significant increases in exports of raw, semi-processed, or processed critical minerals.
Referring to his recent phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, Trump expressed hope for an end to the ongoing conflict.
“We’re making progress regarding Ukraine and Russia. One of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly related to rare earth minerals with Ukraine. They have tremendous resources in rare earth minerals, and we appreciate that. We spoke yesterday with President Putin and President Zelenskyy, and we would love to see this war come to an end. I think we’re making good progress. Hopefully, we can save thousands of lives every week. People are dying unnecessarily, and I believe we’ll get this done. We’ll see what happens, but I believe we will succeed,” he stated.
At a press briefing on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the administration had “moved beyond the economic minerals deal.”
Leavitt explained, “That minerals deal was the initial framework you all saw in that very public meeting between President Zelenskyy and President Trump in the Oval Office. We are now focused on a long-term peace agreement.”
Earlier, Trump also signed a proclamation honoring the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s famous speech to the Second Virginia Convention.
“I just want to announce that I signed a proclamation a few moments ago honoring the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s famous speech to the Second Virginia Convention, in which he declared the very well-known, very famous words: ‘Give me liberty or give me death,'” he said.
(ANI)