NOT A SHORT-TERM PROJECT
Baskaran also stressed that the benefits of the deal will not materialise under the Trump administration.
It takes 18 years on average globally to build a mine, which lasts between 40 and 80 years – potentially longer with brownfield investment, she said.
“This is not a short-term (project) that, by the end of Trump’s term, we’re going to see minerals coming this way. But again, remember that all minerals policy is long-term,” she added.
“We started building rare earth separation processing facilities (in the US) a few years ago to reduce our reliance on China, which processes 90 per cent of the world’s rare earths, but they’re not finished yet. These are multi-year projects.”
Petrov told CNA’s Asia Now the deal has seemed “very strange” and “very hurried”, adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “desperate to save his country”.
Under Trump, the US has sought to thaw relations with Russia. This shift in policy has sparked fears that it could spell the end of US support for Kyiv and the rest of Europe.
Petrov noted that the minerals deal does not seem to provide a commitment from the US to give security guarantees to Ukraine in the wake of any ceasefire deal with Russia – one of Kyiv’s prior demands for an agreement.
Nevertheless, reports stated that Washington has cut clauses deemed unfavourable to Ukraine, such as a demand that it provide US$500 billion worth of resources. Kyiv previously said this was far above the official figure of US$65.9 billion in US military aid to Ukraine since the invasion.
“We are looking at very unclear, very shadowy dealings, and there are many questions about this deal particularly in the state of war,” said Petrov.
“Those signatures (on the deal), in the current situation of an ongoing war of aggression, perhaps won’t be very long-living.”
