Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed master of the art of the deal, has finally succeeded in getting one part of his grand war-ending bargain with Ukraine over the finishing line. The minerals deal the US signed with Kyiv on Thursday may not be quite as one-sided and crassly exploitative as earlier drafts suggested. Nonetheless, the deal bears all the hallmarks of the Trump administration’s approach to ending the conflict.
Washington has secured, once again, a public display of submission by the Ukrainians. Lest anyone think that the US is a chump which randomly hands out cash to democratic nations fighting for their freedom and independence, Trump has locked in a mechanism for its investment in Ukraine’s war effort to be paid back in full. But most importantly, like everything else in the world of Trumpian diplomacy the minerals deal makes grand claims but actually means little.
To be clear, it was Kyiv itself who started the ball rolling on the idea of a grand joint minerals-extraction deal in the run-up to last year’s US presidential election. Ukrainian whizz-kids drew up an investor-style pitch deck detailing the great value of the natural resources lying under their country’s soil, ready to be exploited. The idea was to appeal to transactionally-minded Republicans that continuing support for Kyiv would be to America’s Washington’s profit as well as its strategic interest. The bait worked all too well, with many senior members of the Trump team soon parroting fantastical figures.
Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed master of the art of the deal, has finally succeeded in getting one part of his grand war-ending bargain with Ukraine over the finishing line. The minerals deal the US signed with Kyiv on Thursday may not be quite as one-sided and crassly exploitative as earlier drafts suggested. Nonetheless, the deal bears all the hallmarks of the Trump administration’s approach to ending the conflict.
Washington has secured, once again, a public display of submission by the Ukrainians. Lest anyone think that the US is a chump which randomly hands out cash to democratic nations fighting for their freedom and independence, Trump has locked in a mechanism for its investment in Ukraine’s war effort to be paid back in full. But most importantly, like everything else in the world of Trumpian diplomacy the minerals deal makes grand claims but actually means little.
To be clear, it was Kyiv itself who started the ball rolling on the idea of a grand joint minerals-extraction deal in the run-up to last year’s US presidential election. Ukrainian whizz-kids drew up an investor-style pitch deck detailing the great value of the natural resources lying under their country’s soil, ready to be exploited. The idea was to appeal to transactionally-minded Republicans that continuing support for Kyiv would be to America’s Washington’s profit as well as its strategic interest. The bait worked all too well, with many senior members of the Trump team soon parroting fantastical figures.