According to reports, the French president met the u.s. president at the Whitehouse on Monday and the two took part in a virtual meeting with g7 to discuss the war in Ukraine. Reportedly, Ukraine and the u.s. are close to signing a deal concerning Ukraine’s mineral deposits, includes graphite, used to make batteries in electric vehicles and rare earth minerals, used in modern weaponry amongst other things.
According to the report, half of Ukraine’s manganese, caesium, tantalum and rare earth deposits have been taken by Russia. The u.s. who want to reduce their dependency on China want full control of the minerals, Ukraine want any deal to provide security guarantees.