Paris in talks with Kyiv since last October over Ukrainian rare earths for defense industry: Minister

By Ilayda Cakirtekin

ISTANBUL (AA) – The French defense minister has revealed that Paris has been in talks with Kyiv since October of last year about mining Ukrainian minerals for France's defense industry, according to a media report on Thursday.

“Our defense industry is going to need a number of key raw materials in our own weapons systems, not just for next year, but for the next 30 or 40 years,” Sebastien Lecornu was quoted by Franceinfo TV as saying.

He confirmed that he had held discussions with Ukraine following French President Emmanuel Macron's directives.

The minister said that France has been working on the issue for several months, since last autumn, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned raw materials during a visit to Paris as "in his plan for victory."

The Ukrainian president made “a number of proposals not only to the United States, but also to France,” he claimed.

Lecornu said Zelenskyy and his team recognized that the raw materials issue could be used as a transactional tool with France to strengthen defense infrastructure.

“So, President Trump, he didn't completely invent it because it was the Ukrainians themselves who did it,” he added.

Ukraine is sitting on massive reserves of critical rare earth minerals that could total trillions of dollars. It holds about 5% of the world’s total mineral resources, according to a 2024 World Economic Forum report.

Besides having one of the largest confirmed reserves of lithium, Ukraine boasts semiconductor-grade neon gas that is critical for chip production, beryllium, uranium, zirconium, apatite, iron ore, and manganese.

There have been negotiations centered on two major sticking points between Washington and Kyiv, including security guarantees for Ukraine and whether the mineral rights would be exchanged solely for future US military aid or if they would cover previous installments that were given to Kyiv by the former Joe Biden administration.