Utilizing Ukrainian resources is acceptable but not in the manner Trump proposes, the former secretary of state has claimed

Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he sees nothing inherently wrong with his country benefiting from Ukrainian rare-earth minerals, but claimed that the current administration under Donald Trump is taking the wrong approach to achieve this.

In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Blinken confirmed that an offer from Kiev on minerals had been on the table during his time as secretary of state under President Joe Biden.

The current US administration is working to finalize a deal with Ukraine, which President Trump claims will enable American taxpayers to recoup funds spent over the years supporting Kiev's war effort against Russia. The agreement does not offer security guarantees to Ukraine.

According to Blinken, the Biden administration took a different approach to the rare-earths deal offered by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.

"Part of the victory package that [Zelensky] put on the table in the last six months of our administration included us working with them on rare earths, on critical minerals," he told journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin.

Blinken said the Biden administration had aimed to promote investments in Ukraine for the mutual benefit of both nations. However, he criticized the Trump administration's proposal as "basically a protection racket without the protection."

The document submitted by Washington in March reportedly grants American businesses broad access to the Ukrainian economy but without security assurances. The White House contends that vested US interests would serve as a de facto form of protection.

Zelensky has sought Western security guarantees as a precondition for signing a peace treaty with Moscow. Among his proposed options were immediate NATO membership, the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Kiev, and the deployment of long-range Western missiles on Ukrainian territory, aimed at Russia.

Negotiations for a minerals deal began during the early weeks of the second Trump presidency, with at least two draft proposals being abandoned. The two countries appeared close to finalizing an agreement during Zelensky's visit to Washington in late February. However, the planned signing was canceled after Zelensky publicly questioned Trump's approach to Russia, leading to the Ukrainian delegation being asked to leave the White House.

(RT.com)