Zelensky, Trump to sign minerals deal at White House

Kathmandu: A week ago President Donald Trump had branded President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator.

President Trump will host the Ukrainian president at the White House on Friday, and sign a deal granting Washington access to Ukraine’s rare minerals.

The extraordinary turnaround caps a week of frantic international diplomacy centered on Washington, as Kyiv seeks to shore up support despite Trump’s recent pivot towards Russia.

President Trump upended years of US policy on Ukraine two weeks ago when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and started talks on ending the three-year-old war without Kyiv.

He also alarmed allies as he appeared to turn on Zelensky, berating him as a “dictator without elections” and blaming Ukraine for Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

But President Trump’s tone has softened in recent days after visits by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. ‘I have a lot of respect for him,’ President Trump said of Zelensky on Thursday. ‘We’re going to get along really well.’ said President Trump.

President Trump also backtracked on the “dictator” broadside he launched on social media at Zelensky last week a jibe he had previously refused to retract even as he declined to call Putin a dictator too.

RSS/AFP