The minerals deal reached between the U.S. and Ukraine ensures a long-term interest between the two countries, but Russia is painting it as taking away from Ukraine's sovereignty, former Pentagon official Brent Sadler told Newsmax on Sunday.
"[Vladimir] Putin knows that it's going to be the best foundational security guarantee," Sadler, appearing with former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend," commented. "As far as the Russians' rationale and trying to characterize this as some type of takeaway from Ukrainian sovereignty, it's actually a partnership."
It also means that President Donald Trump is "over the right target" with the agreement, said Sadler.
"Of course, there's a lot more we can talk about that needs to be done to really get to that lasting peace," Sadler said.
Meanwhile, the deal can ease America's reliance on China for rare earth minerals, said Fleitz.
"China has a monopoly on these rare earth minerals that are crucial for our defense and for our electronics," he said. "I would like to see the U.S. sign dozens of these agreements to break the Chinese monopoly."
The payoff with the deal with Ukraine remains many years into the future, Fleitz added, and it may well be that no minerals will be found.
However, the arrangement is a "concrete sign" that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will "play ball" with Trump, said Fleitz.
Fleitz also commented on Trump's removal of Mike Waltz as national security adviser, saying his replacement will need to push "very hard to keep our country out of unnecessary wars."
"There is a real rush right now by neocons to bomb Iran," Fleitz said. "Now, maybe we'll have to bomb Iran, but we have to do everything possible short of war before doing that. You know, if we bomb Iran, we're going to release radiation. We're going to set fires off around the country. Tens of thousands will be killed. Maybe the U.S. will have to do that. I don't think the president is in a rush to do that. The new national security adviser will reflect that priority."
Meanwhile, Trump's budget proposal calls for a record $1.01 trillion for defense, and Sadler said it's known that several billion dollars will go toward border defense.
"There's almost $34 billion going into naval shipbuilding," Sadler, a retired U.S. Navy captain, commented. "This is a significant uptick. But it's not going to be enough. And it has to be sustained because we're looking at decades of neglect and the need to build many more ships than we have been building over the last couple of decades. The Chinese have surpassed us and passed us by in a lot of key technologies. So we've seen some significant investments in this. Also, the next generation fighters are in there."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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