The US and Ukraine on Wednesday reached a deal over access to Ukraine’s natural resources, with Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha yesterday hailing it as “an important milestone.”
The deal signed in Washington grants the US privileged access to new investment projects to develop Ukraine’s natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil and natural gas.
It has been seen as critical to fostering US President Donald Trump’s goodwill as his administration pushes to end the war with Russia.
Photo: Reuters
“This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine over the long term,” US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement. “And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian Minister of Economic Affairs Yulia Svyrydenko said on social media that “together with the United States, we are creating the Fund that will attract global investment into our country.”
Trump, in a NewsNation “town hall” on Wednesday, said that he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy when they both attended the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican last weekend that “I was telling him that it’s a very good thing if we can produce a deal that you sign.”
Under the terms of the deal, the US would get first claim on profits transferred into a special reconstruction investment fund that would be jointly managed by both nations.
The deal is intended in part to reimburse the US for future military assistance to Ukraine.
“We made a deal where our money is secure, where we can start digging and doing what we have to do,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting at the White House earlier on Wednesday.
Washington also acknowledged Kyiv’s intentions for the deal to avoid any conflict with its plans to join the EU.
The focus will now shift to the negotiations over a peace deal.
Sybiha discussed the deal with the EU’s top diplomat.
“This marks an important milestone in Ukraine-US strategic partnership aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s economy and security,” Sybiha wrote on X.
He said he had informed European Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas about the deal and that they had discussed moves to “coordinate steps ahead of important international events.”
“We discussed recent diplomatic efforts and the next steps to achieve a fair and lasting peace,” Sybiha said.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS