 "Trump declines to provide 'security guarantees to Ukraine beyond very much', urges Europe to take responsibility")
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would not be providing “security guarantees to Ukraine beyond very much,” indicating that European nations should assume that responsibility due to their geographical closeness.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that, because it’s in, you know — we’re talking about, Europe is their next-door neighbour, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well,” CNN quoted Trump as saying at his first Cabinet meeting.
“And as you know, we’ll be making a — we’ll be really partnering with Ukraine, in terms of rare earth. We very much need rare earth. They have great rare earth,” Trump added.
Trump said that his Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright would be “working on that together.”
“The deal we’re making gets us, it brings us great wealth. We get back the money that we spent, and we hope that we’re going to be able to settle this up,” Trump was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Trump confirmed that Zelenskyy will be visiting the White House on Friday to sign an agreement on natural resources and reconstruction of war-torn Ukraine.
“We’re doing very well with Russia-Ukraine. President Zelenskyy is going to be coming on Friday. It’s now confirmed, and we’re going to be signing an agreement,” CNN quoted Trump as saying, thanking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsTrump said his administration is “happy about” the deal, which could grant the US access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as part of wider negotiations to end Russia’s invasion, as well as US involvement in a reconstruction fund for Ukraine.
Talking about ending the Ukraine war, Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is going to have to” make concessions in the negotiations.
“Yeah, he will,” CNN quoted Trump as saying when asked whether Putin will make concessions.
“He’s going to have to. And I think, I believe that, because we got elected, that war will come to an end. And I also believe if we didn’t get elected, if this administration didn’t win the election by a lot, that war would go on for a long time, and he would want to take the whole thing,” said Trump.
Asked what concessions the Russian leader would have to make, Trump said, “I don’t want to tell you right now.”
But the president poured cold water on Ukraine’s desire to join Nato to bring the conflict to an end.
“But I can tell you, Nato you can forget about,” said Trump.
With inputs from agencies
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