Bessent Calls Zelenskiy's Stand at White House Unacceptable
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent characterized the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the White House on Friday as “unacceptable.”
(Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent characterized the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the White House on Friday as “unacceptable.”
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“It’s very difficult to do an economic deal with a leader who doesn’t want to do a peace deal,” Bessent said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
Bessent’s comments came soon after President Donald Trump’s aim to sign a critical minerals deal with Zelenskiy unraveled in a stormy Oval Office confrontation between the two leaders.
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The public spat was largely over whether Zelenskiy was sufficiently grateful for US assistance. Zelenskiy had been seeking greater security guarantees from the US in exchange for signing on to the pact. The deal didn’t offer explicit security guarantees, instead focusing on the economic partnership between the US and Ukraine.
Zelenskiy pressed the point that the minerals deal wouldn’t do enough to deter further Russian aggression.
“Putin will never stop and will go further and further,” Zelenskiy said, adding that the Russian leader “hates Ukrainians” and wanted to destroy the country. “We can do it, but it’s not enough,” he added of the deal.
Bessent called the Zelenskiy argument “one of the great diplomatic own goals in history,” referring to the instance in soccer when a player accidentally scores a goal for the opposing side.
“I was shocked, shocked that President Zelenskiy would come into the Oval Office and behave like this, speak to the president, speak to the vice president — but more importantly, disrespect the American people — like this,” Bessent said.
The Treasury chief went on to say the proposed minerals agreement would have been a “fantastic deal.”
The proposal would share revenue from future extraction of government-owned minerals and energy resources such as gas, as well as from terminals and port infrastructure, according to a draft text seen by Bloomberg. That would apply to new projects rather than existing ones, and could require hefty investment in mines, as well as any processing facilities.
(Updates with additional comments from fifth paragraph.)
