Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russia has a lot of rare land deposits that is open to making agreements to develop them, after Russian President Vladimir Putin, maintained the possibility of such collaboration with the United States.
“Americans need rare land metals. We have many of them, ”said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“We have our own plans to develop strategic resources, but there are quite broad perspectives of cooperation here,” he told reporters.
Putin told state TV on Monday that Russia is open to joint projects with US partners-including the government and the private sector-under a future economic agreement between Russia and the US.
US President Donald Trump promised that “major economic development transactions with Russia” would be carried out.
Peskov said there is still a lot of work to normalize the relations between Moscow and Washington before any economic agreement can be closed.
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“The next point of the agenda is the issue of resolution of the Ukrainian crisis,” said Peskov. “And then, especially since the Americans themselves also talked about this, it will be time to consider possible projects related to commercial, economic and investment cooperation.”
“When there is, say, a moment of political will, we will be open to this (cooperation in rare land metals),” Peskov added.
What are rare lands?
Rare lands are a group of 17 metals used to manufacture magnets that turn power outlets for electric vehicles, cell phones, missile systems and other electronics.
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Russia has the fifth largest world reserve of rare land metals, according to data from US Geological Survey, after China, Brazil, India and Australia.
The US and Ukraine are negotiating a separate agreement involving rare land metals. Trump said this week that the agreement is “very close” to be completed. Putin said on Monday that these negotiations are not a concern for Russia.
Kremlin reaffirms a position against European peace forces in Ukraine
Asked about a statement by US President Donald Trump that Russia is open to the sending of European peace forces to Ukraine, Kremlin referred reporters to an earlier statement that such a measure would be unacceptable to Moscow.
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Russia has repeatedly said that it is opposed to the presence of troops of the Western Military Alliance Organization of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) in Ukraine, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, saying last week that Moscow would see this as a “threat Direct ”to Russia’s sovereignty, even if the troops operated there under a different flag.
Asked about Trump’s comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refrained from publicly contradicting the US president, but actually reaffirmed Russia’s opposition to the idea.
“There is a position on this subject that was expressed by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. I have nothing to add to this and nothing to comment. I leave this without comments, ”said Peskov.
