'Good progress' in rare earth minerals deal talks with US: Zelensky

Kyiv, April 17 (IANS) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that negotiators were making "good progress" with the US in fraught talks over a minerals deal intended to secure desperately needed US support.

"The basic legal stuff is almost finalised, and then, if everything moves as quickly and constructively, the agreement will bring economic results to both our countries," Zelensky said on Wednesday in his daily address.

Kyiv and Washington had planned to sign a deal on extracting Ukraine's strategic minerals, until a clash between US President Donald Trump and Zelensky in February temporarily derailed work on the agreement.

Trump wants the deal -- designed to give the US royalty payments on profits from Ukrainian mining of resources and rare minerals -- as compensation for aid given to Ukraine by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

"The Ukrainian government team working with the US side on the economic partnership agreement is making good progress," Zelensky said.

He pointed to an update provided by Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko who earlier said "significant progress" had been made in the talks.

She said Ukrainian officials had "adjusted several items within the draft agreement" and that the two sides would sign a "memorandum of intent" soon.

The Ukrainian Parliament would vote on any final accord, she added.

A senior official with knowledge of the negotiations said talks were moving forward "quite fast".

The source told a leading media agency that newer drafts of the accord appeared not to recognise US aid as a debt owed by Ukraine.

That assessment echoed an earlier report by Bloomberg News that said Washington had eased a demand that Kyiv pay back aid delivered since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

It reported that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had on Monday that a deal could be signed as early as "this week".

Last month, the Trump administration proposed a new, more expansive minerals deal, which gives Ukraine no future security guarantees but requires it to place in a joint investment fund all income from the exploitation of natural resources by state and private enterprises across Ukrainian territory.

--IANS

khz/