MINERALS: The US president’s special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said that a rare earths deal could help ensure continued US economic support for the nation
AP, PARIS
US President Donald Trump’s senior advisers are expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy this week on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany to discuss a path toward ending Russia’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine.
Retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said that the White House is ironing out details of the highly anticipated talks during the annual summit for international security discussions.
US Vice President J.D. Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kellogg are among the Trump administration officials traveling to Germany for the summit, and all could be involved in the critical talks with Zelenskiy and his team on the sidelines of the event.
Retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg attends a news conference at the White House in Washington on Feb. 15, 2017.
Photo: Reuters
“Knowing how the process works, it would probably be better for Zelenskiy if we all met together and talked through it as a group,” Kellogg said.
Trump on Monday said he would “probably” speak with Zelenskiy this week.
The US president said administration officials also would use the Munich gathering to get a better gauge of the support that European nations are willing to provide Kyiv as it tries to repel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grinding invasion.
Kellogg and other administration officials have already been meeting with European diplomats in Washington to discuss Ukraine, but the talks in Munich give Trump’s top aides their first major opportunity to deliver a message about the new administration’s foreign policy outlook and its approach to a war that Trump has said is costing too much US taxpayer money.
He complained anew about Europe not doing enough in its own backyard. Trump argued that nations on the continent should repay the US what Washington has spent helping Kyiv.
“We will deliver our expectation to the allies,” Kellogg said. “When we come back from Munich we want to deliver to the president the options, so when he does get [directly] involved in the peace process, he knows what it will look like for him.”
Trump, who had previously said he would bring about a rapid end to the war, has suggested that administration officials have already begun talks with Russian officials. Trump has said his administration has been in contact with Putin, but he has declined to provide further details about the purported talks.
Trump also has said that he wants to reach an agreement with Ukraine to gain access to the nation’s rare earths as a condition for continuing US support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia. The president on Monday told reporters that his aides were working toward striking such a deal.
“We have people over there today who are making a deal that as we give money, we get minerals, and we get oil and we get all sorts of things,” Trump said. “Because why are we doing this?”
Kellogg said a rare earths deal could help ensure continued US economic support for Ukraine.
“The economics of that would allow for further support to the Ukrainians,” he said.
