Kremlin says Russia has lots of rare earth metals that the US needs and is open to cooperation
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
President Vladimir Putin told state TV on Feb 24 that Russia was open to joint projects with American partners.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
MOSCOW - The Kremlin said on Feb 25 that Russia had lots of rare earth metal deposits and that it was open to doing deals to develop them after President Vladimir Putin held out the possibility of such collaboration
“The Americans need rare earth metals. We have a lot of them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“We have our own plans to develop strategic resources, but there are quite broad prospects for cooperation here,” he told reporters.
Mr Putin told state TV on Feb 24 that Russia was open to joint projects with American partners – including government and the private sector – under a future Russia-US economic deal.
US President Donald Trump has pledged that “major economic development transactions with Russia” would take place.
Mr Peskov said there was still a lot of work to be done to normalise relations between Moscow and Washington before any economic deals could be struck.
“Next on the agenda is the issue of resolving the Ukrainian crisis”, said Mr Peskov. “And then, especially since the Americans themselves have also spoken about it, it will be time to consider possible projects related to trade, economic and investment cooperation.”
“When there comes, let’s say, a moment of political will, we will be open to this (cooperation on rare earth metals),” Mr Peskov added.
Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cell phones, missile systems, and other electronics.
Russia has the world's fifth-largest reserves of rare earth metals, according to the US Geological Survey data, after China, Brazil, India and Australia.
The US and Ukraine are negotiating a separate deal
