France has been in talks for several months with Ukraine over possible sale of critical minerals for its defence industry, according to French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
The question of Ukraine’s natural resources has been a hot topic in the past weeks as US President Donald Trump demanded access in exchange for the aid already given during the Biden Administration and for future support to the Ukrainian fight against Russia. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should meet with Trump to sign a deal for some of Ukraine’s natural resources.
However, recently it surfaced that also France has been in talks for these rare earth minerals from Ukraine. Lecornu spoke to France Info saying that French President Emmanuel Macron mandated him to start talks with Ukraine in Autumn.
“We are speaking about this issue for our own French needs. I have defence industries that will need access to a certain number of raw materials in the years to come,” he said, without specifying which materials France is seeking. The US seemed to be looking mainly for new supplies of lithium and uranium.
Lecornu also said he started talking about this topic with Ukraine since October with his direct counterpart in the Ukrainian government. The aim is to buy the minerals as a way of diversifying its supply for the defence industry, but talks are at preliminary stages.
During his interview, the minister was adamant that the interest in Ukraine’s natural resources was not a sort of “payback” for the billions of euros France gave Ukraine in military and other aid, unlike how Trump framed the whole deal. He said that “our defence sector will need a certain number of raw materials that are absolutely crucial in our own weapons systems […] for the next 30 or 40 years.”
