It's not clear what changed.
"Ukrainian officials say Kyiv is now ready to sign the agreement on jointly developing its mineral resources, including oil and gas, after the US dropped demands for a right to $500bn in potential revenue from exploiting the resources."
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"The final version of the agreement, dated February 24 and seen by the FT, would establish a fund into which Ukraine would contribute 50 per cent of proceeds from the “future monetisation” of state-owned mineral resources, including oil and gas, and associated logistics. The fund would invest in projects in Ukraine.
It excludes mineral resources that already contribute to Ukrainian government coffers, meaning it would not cover the existing activities of Naftogaz or Ukrnafta, Ukraine’s largest gas and oil producers.
However, the agreement omits any reference to US security guarantees which Kyiv had originally insisted on in return for agreeing to the deal. It also leaves crucial questions such as the size of the US stake in the fund and the terms of “joint ownership” deals to be hashed out in follow-up agreements."
Also, I'm certain this will be spun into very effective pro-Russian propaganda.
Biden was, I think, was afraid of escalation, of Russian nukes.
Trump and Putin both think in terms that could be phrased as "great powers set the rules, everyone else is an NPC". Both are going to continue to be confused that Europe doing exactly what Trump is telling them to do — increasing military spending — is going to result in a Europe that has no strings binding it to the USA.
Yes. Trump surrendering to Putin normalises the taking of territory and resources through conquest.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/11/norway-discovers-europes-lar...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wyoming-hits-the-rare-earth-mot...
They're not that rare, China's just a place that can extract it cheaply and not care too much about pollution.
Welcome to the new Ukraine.
