The former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he backs the US President’s deal on Ukraine’s natural resources.
Johnson said the rare earths deal should be signed by Kyiv as it will commit the US to “free and sovereign Ukraine.”
Ukrainian officials said the rare earths deal will place the US interests firmly in Ukraine and the deal is in its final stages.
Johnson said, “The deal should be signed.
“It commits the U.S. to a free and sovereign Ukraine. A continued American support is well worth the price for Ukraine.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky has been reluctant to sign the deal as there is no security guarantees. The White House initially wanted 50% interest in Ukraine’s natural resources.
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This include oil, gas and critical infrastructure and ports, but President Zelensky said Ukraine is not ready to “split 50/50 without knowing what’s ahead,” Johnson said of the deal, “I think it’s better than it was.”
Johnson said, “There will be not a penny incurred to that fund unless there is a free sovereign Ukraine. It says the profits will be reinvested at least annually. Ukrainians have negotiated it very, very well.
“I look at this document and I see positive things for Ukraine. It has seeds of hope and progress. Get that deal done and get the U.S. locked in.
“For all its weaknesses — it doesn’t go far enough on security — it’s still a prospect of progress for Ukraine.”
The former British Prime Minister said the document has “good language” over a “long-term economic partnership” and compared the deal to the World War II lease deal when the US placed a hard deal for the UK and the US was paid back until 2006.
“I think Trump is trying to show Republicans that he’s got something. The tragedy is he’s been listening for too long to Tucker Carlson, who pedals the Russian propaganda,” Johnson said.
Johnson was asked to make a comment over Trump blaming Ukraine for Russia’s war, he said, “Saying that Ukraine started the war is like saying the U.S. provoked Japan to attack Pearl Harbor.”
Asked what would Sir Winston Churchill do, he said that he would do what Zelensky id currently doing by keeping “America engaged.”
“Ukraine will win. I remain defiantly optimistic about the chances of this country. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is going to fail, Ukraine is going to succeed.”
“Who in Europe in the past two years has been talking about these billions? Why haven’t we been hearing from European leaders about $300 billion?
“We only talk about it in the rooms like this, at conferences. There’s not enough political will to do it.”
Johnson also back putting British troops in Ukraine as it shows Putin who is in charge and that Ukraine is a free country who “can choose which clubs to join.”
“Putin says to Ukraine (that) you can’t have foreign boots on the ground. By rejecting that, we show who’s in charge of Ukraine. That’s all it’s about. You make visible the fact of Ukrainian sovereignty and independence.”
