Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a joint partnership with the United States to explore rare earth mineral deposits in Russia.
Moscow’s decision came after Putin met with his ministers and rare Earth economic advisors. The meeting was reportedly held within just two hours of President Donald Trump stating that “major economic development transactions with Russia” were forthcoming. The Russian president also offered to supply aluminum to the United States domestic market.
“We, by the way, would be ready to offer our American partners, and when I say ‘partners,’ I mean not only administrative and governmental structures but also companies, if they showed interest in joint work,” Putin said on state TV following the meeting, per Reuters.
Putin also pointed to Russia’s access to natural resources relative to its adversary, Ukraine.
“We undoubtedly have, I want to emphasize, significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine,” Putin said. The reference was an apartment nod to the deal Washinton and Kyiv have been formulating this week, which could see a portion of Ukraine’s natural resource revenue shared with the United States.
For his part, Putin said Moscow was not concerned about a potential agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine.
President Putin also stated that Russia could deliver upwards of two million tons of aluminum to the U.S. market annually should a path to trade reopen. Before cost-prohibitive duties were applied in 2023, around 15% of all aluminum imported to the U.S. came from Russia.
“What is most important, in my opinion, is that we could consider working together with American companies in this area,” Putin said, referring to the prospect of U.S. and Russian companies jointly working on aluminum production and hydropower generation in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia.
Despite the seemingly friendly interaction between the two global leaders, last month, President Trump released a statement threatening tariffs and more sanctions against Russia if they did not end their war with Ukraine. However, Trump also emphasized that he did not want “to hurt Russia.”
“I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin – and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process,” President Trump posted on X on January 22.