Washington DC [US], March 21 : US President Donald Trump on Thursday (local time) 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--doing quite well," he said.
Trump announced 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 production of critical minerals and rare earths. It's a big thing in this country. We're also signing agreements in various locations to unlock rare earths and minerals, and lots of other things all over the world, but in particular, Ukraine," he said.
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 doing very well with regard to Ukraine and Russia, and one of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earth with Ukraine. They have tremendous value in rare earth minerals. We appreciate that. We spoke yesterday with President Putin and President Zelenskyy, and we would love to see this come to an end. I think we're doing pretty well in that regard. Hopefully, we can save thousands of people a week from dying. They're dying so unnecessarily, and I believe we'll get it done. We'll see what happens, but I believe we'll get it done," he said.
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, "It means the minerals deal was that first set of framework that you all saw in that very public meeting with 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 honouring 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 honouring 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.