Ekaterina Girnyk10:34, 26.02.25

4 min.434

None of the experts interviewed by the publication could recall a precedent when the United States or any other country would demand a formal payment agreement from its partner during a war.

Ukraine is close to concluding an agreement to hand over some of its mineral revenues to the United States . However, the agreement in its current form will not include any clear security guarantees to deter Russian aggression. At the same time, in comments to The New York Times, experts interviewed sharply condemned Trump’s policy.

In particular, peace agreement expert Virginia Paige Fortna said that such an explicit demand from Ukraine to hand over its mineral wealth, while the country is in dire straits, “looks like a racket.”

And Stephen A. Cook, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, commenting on US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz’s statement that an “economic partnership” with the US, asserts that “the new security guarantee is, in essence, extortion.”

However, none of the experts interviewed by the publication could recall a precedent in which the United States or any other country extorted money or resources from its allies during a war.

“It might seem that demanding that Ukraine hand over its mineral wealth is simply Donald Trump’s direct statement of a diplomatic truth that usually goes unspoken: that security guarantees often come with a hidden price. But in fact, experts say, his approach represents a radical departure from American foreign policy,” the newspaper writes.

Of course, there are many instances in which the United States has used its military power to protect American economic interests. For example, securing access to oil has been a major pillar of American policy in the Middle East, particularly when the United States defended Kuwait from an Iraqi invasion.

But the United States “never said to the Kuwaitis, ‘Hey, you have to pay us for this,'” said Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations. Allies such as Saudi Arabia helped finance the Gulf War, but not under duress.

As experts note, Trump’s tactics suggest that he is trying to apply the lessons of politics in New York, where he built his real estate career, to the world of international relations. In such politics, every decision is essentially an opportunity for political bosses to extract benefits for themselves and their supporters, and extracting more benefits is a signal of greater power.

But scholars who study international relations say that’s not how foreign policy works. In international relations, credibility is the most important element of power. Deterrence depends on whether a country keeps its promises. Without such trust, hostile countries are more likely to test the limits of what is acceptable, the Times notes.

Trump’s diplomacy sends a message to allies that the United States cannot be trusted to help its friends or fulfill its commitments, experts say.

“And it sends a signal to its adversaries that could have even more serious consequences: that the United States is willing to put short-term financial gain ahead of its broader long-term interests.”

Minerals Agreement with the United States

Earlier it became known that  Ukraine and the United States agreed on the details of the agreement  on mineral resources. 

The agreement provides for the creation of a fund into which Ukraine will contribute 50 percent of the income from the “future monetization” of state mineral resources. 

It does not include mineral resources that already fill the Ukrainian government’s budget, meaning it will not cover the current operations of Naftogaz or Ukrnafta, Ukraine’s largest gas and oil producers. The agreement, however, makes no reference to U.S. security guarantees.

(C)UNIAN 2025