Secretary Scott Bessent Says Ukraine Mineral Deal Is Ready To Be Signed But Ukraine Is Making Changes

Forbes Breaking News

At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Sec. Scott Bessent spoke about the Ukraine mineral deal.

Transcript

00:00Is it true that the Ukraine minerals deal is about to be signed in the next 24 hours or so?

00:09There's some reports saying that.

00:10And if it's true, has the deal changed at all from the last time we heard about it?

00:14Well, I'll ask Scott to answer the question because he's responsible for it.

00:17Yeah, our side is ready to sign the Ukrainians beside him last night to make some last-minute changes.

00:23We're sure that they will reconsider that, and we are ready to sign this afternoon, if they are.

00:28Can you talk about those last-minute changes, what was removed or put in its place?

00:32Nothing's been removed.

00:33It's the same agreement that we agreed to on the weekend.

00:36No changes on our side.

00:37Just to put that in perspective, though, when I came here, I said, how much money have we given to Ukraine?

00:44The real number is about $350 billion.

00:49That's unthinkable.

00:51And we had no security.

00:53We had no nothing.

00:53We were just pouring money there, unsecured money, putting it in banks, and anybody could

01:00have taken it out.

01:01You know, anybody over there.

01:02It was their decision.

01:03I've never said they like it.

01:05Europe, on the other hand, which it's obviously that whole situation is much more important

01:10to Europe because we have an ocean in between.

01:12But Europe gave about $100 billion.

01:15It's a lot of money.

01:17It's a big sacrifice they made also.

01:19But they gave much less than we did.

01:22And their money is secured, totally secured, by deposits in banks.

01:27The deposits are largely Russian deposits.

01:30That's what Europe did.

01:31But their money is secured.

01:32So they gave $100 billion totally secured.

01:35We gave money like it's throwing it out the window.

01:38And it was done by Biden.

01:41And this is Biden's war.

01:43This isn't Trump's war.

01:44I'm trying to get out.

01:45And more than the money, they're losing about 5,000 young Russian and Ukrainian soldiers

01:51a week, mostly.

01:51There's some people also being killed in towns where missiles should not have been shot,

01:57small cities and towns.

01:59But we are trying to save the lives of about 5,000 young, mostly soldiers, that are losing

02:08their lives a week.

02:09I see satellite photos, probably off one of his satellites come to think of it.

02:15But I see satellite photos every week of fields with arms and heads and legs scattered all over.

02:22It's a violent, violent, horrible situation.

02:26And more important than the money, I want to save the lives of people from other countries

02:30that are dying so stupidly, so needlessly.

02:33And they're dying.

02:34But I said, what are we doing?

02:39How did we get into this war?

02:41Would have never happened if I were president.

02:43Everybody knows.

02:43And it didn't happen for four years.

02:45Wasn't even thought of.

02:47I discussed it with President Putin a lot.

02:50He created it.

02:50It was the apple of his eye.

02:51But there was no way he was going to do anything.

02:53Zero chance.

02:55And I said, you know, we feel foolish.

02:58The Europeans are putting up money.

03:00It's totally secure.

03:00They get the money back.

03:01We're putting up much more money.

03:05We have absolutely nothing.

03:07And I didn't want to make a complicated deal.

03:10I didn't want to make a deal that couldn't be made because Ukraine doesn't have very much money.

03:15They're going through a very bad period of time.

03:18It's been brutal.

03:19But I felt very foolish at being a judge.

03:23So I said, well, we want something for our efforts beyond what you would think would be acceptable.

03:30And we said rare earth.

03:32They have very good rare earth.

03:34As you know, we're looking for rare earth all the time.

03:37It's rare earth is called rare for a reason.

03:40And they have a lot.

03:43And we made a deal where our money is secure, where we can start digging and doing what we have to do.

03:51It's also good for them because you'll have an American presence at the site, Chris.

03:55And the American presence will, I think, keep a lot of bad actors out of the country or certainly out of the area where we're doing the digging.

04:03So we made a deal.

04:05And I assume they're going to honor the deal.

04:07I put Scott in charge and Scott's done it beautifully.

04:11But we haven't really seen the fruits of that deal yet.

04:15I suspect we will.

04:16I suspect we will.

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