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Ukraine and the US discuss ways to make the minerals fund operational within a year

Ukraine's Yulia Shvyrydenko said that the United States and Ukraine have discussed ways to make the minerals fund operational before the end of this year. The fund's initial meeting is scheduled for July.

Svyrydenko signed the agreement in Washington, after months of hard negotiations, which made the terms more favorable for Kyiv. The agreement was heavily promoted by U.S. president Donald Trump.

The Ukrainian parliament ratified this agreement.

Svyrydenko met with U.S. Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent on Wednesday and the Development Finance Corporation which will be the partner of the Minerals Fund. "We discussed very concrete steps to make this fund functional during this year," Svyrydenko told reporters.

We will have our first board meeting in July to discuss the seed capital needed to operate this fund. We should also adopt a strategy for investing in this fund over the next few decades.

Negotiations leading to the signing of the Mineral Fund deal were preceded by a heated discussion between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House about how to end Ukraine's war with Russia, which has lasted for three years.

Zelenskiy's ability to repair his relationship with Trump was dependent on the agreement. In April, the two men briefly met at the Vatican during the funeral for Pope Francis in order to get their relationship back on track. Reporting by Gram Slattery, Costas Pitas and SonaliPaul; Editing by Ron Popeski & SonaliPaul

(source: Reuters)