On Thursday, Ukraine and the United States signed a much-anticipated deal involving rare-earth minerals that will be used to further the end of the war with Russia. The fundamentals of the agreement are said to give the U.S. preferential access to new minerals deals in Ukraine which will also be used to aid the war-torn country’s reconstruction.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told Newsmax that while the agreement gives the U.S. "skin in the game," he noted there are still more rare-earth metals in the U.S. than in Ukraine.
"The issue becomes production facilities. Someone is going to have to process those things. So yeah, we could mine them. It's going to take between five to 10 years before we're going to see any real output. But the question goes, where do they go right now? China has all the processing capacity. That's got to stop no matter what. So we buy these things there, bring them here for processing," he said during an appearance on "The Chris Salcedo Show."
Former Director of Policy at the Department of Defense John Mills joined the conversation and said the deal puts in place areas of negotiations to end the war but that Crimea is a "nuanced complex issue," adding, "Yes, geographically it was Ukraine. However, Ukraine allowed a pretty significant Russian footprint of military bases, housing enclaves, etc. So I think negotiations on trading off territory is absolutely in the works and will probably happen."
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James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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