President Donald J. Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, says he expects a deal to be struck with Ukraine to repay American military and economic aid with rare earth minerals mined in the Eastern European country. The acquisition and securing of rare and valuable minerals—critical in the production of semiconductors and other advanced technology—is a top priority of the Trump administration. Additionally, President Trump’s recent overtures to purchase the Arctic island of Greenland partly stem from the U.S. interest in attaining a secure supply of the vital resource.

“Some of that money will go back to pay back the U.S. taxpayer for the billions of dollars that’s been spent there,” Sec. Rubio said in a radio interview on Thursday. The deal, being negotiated at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, could see Ukraine supply the U.S. with hundreds of billions of dollars worth of graphite, uranium, titanium, and lithium in exchange for future American military aid.

“I told [Ukraine] that I want the equivalent [of] like $500 billion worth of rare earth,” President Trump said in an interview aired on Fox News on Monday. Sec. Rubio is joined in Mnuchin by Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The two cabinet officials have led ongoing talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, the latter indicating he hopes to finalize an agreement in Munich this week.

Ukraine currently has access to at least 22 of the 50 rare earth minerals considered critical to the American economy and military by the U.S. government. A deal with Ukraine would allow the U.S. to reduce the import of these critical resources from China, currently the world’s largest supplier of rare earth minerals.

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