Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the US an opportunity for joint exploitation of rare land deposits in the country, as well as the supply of aluminum to the US domestic, outlining a future economic agreement between the two countries.
Donald Trump said earlier that “major economic development transactions with Russia” would happen. Two hours after Trump’s statement, Putin chaired a meeting with Russian ministers and economic advisers about rare land metals.
“We, by the way, would be ready to offer our American partners, and when I say ‘partners’, I mean not only administrative and government structures, but also companies, if they showed interest in joint work,” Putin told state TV after the meeting.
“No doubt we have, I want to emphasize, significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine,” Putin added. He mentioned that one involving rare land metals is not a concern for Russia.
He noted that Russian companies could provide up to 2 million tons of aluminum to the US market annually if the US market reopened. Russia used to provide about 15% of US aluminum imports before prohibitive rates were introduced by 2023.
“This (the supply of Russian aluminum) will not significantly affect price formation. However, in my opinion, it would still have a restrictive influence on prices, ”said Putin.
Putin suggested that Russia and the US could work together in hydroelectric power generation and aluminum production in the Russian region of Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, which is the basis of Russian’s largest aluminum manufacturer, the Rusal.
“Most importantly, in my opinion, we could consider working together with American companies in this area,” concluded Putin.
In a transcription published by Kremlin, Putin stated that the rare lands were a priority sector for the economic development and competitiveness of Russia.
He said that the government sought to “boost the potential of domestic industry,” extending from the extraction of “manufacturing high-tech goods ready for use.”
“Based on the results of the national project, the volume of production of these goods should increase several times,” he added.
