Zelenskyy Says Vatican Meeting With Trump Was the Best So Far

Zelenskyy touted the U.S.โ€“Ukraine minerals deal as a key outcome of the meeting, urging Ukrainian lawmakers to ratify it quickly.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that his meeting with President Donald Trump at the Vatican a week ago was the โ€œmost substantiveโ€ the two have ever held.

Speaking to reporters in Kyiv on May 2, Zelenskyy said the encounter with Trump, which took place on the sidelines of Pope Francisโ€™s funeral on April 26, marked a shift in tone and substance between the two leaders.

โ€œI believe our conversation with President Trump was the best weโ€™ve had so far. It may have been the shortest, but it was the most substantive. With all due respect to our teams, I think the one-on-one format worked best,โ€ Zelenskyy said, Ukrainian news agency Interfax-Ukraine reports.

Zelenskyy added that the meeting, held in a private one-on-one format inside St. Peterโ€™s Basilica, cut through diplomatic formalities by creating the โ€œright atmosphere for a real dialogue.โ€

In a video address to the nation on May 1, a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko signed the much-anticipated U.S.โ€“Ukraine minerals deal, Zelenskyy also had words of praise for the meeting with Trump, describing it as โ€œmeaningful.โ€

โ€œWe look forward to other outcomes from that conversationโ€“it was a meaningful meeting, and President Trump and I used every minute to the fullest,โ€ he said. โ€œI thank him for that. And once again, I thank both our teamsโ€“the Ukrainian and the American. The work on the agreement was truly professional, and although the negotiations were at times challenging, the result is a strong one.โ€

U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators had continued to revisit the terms of the proposed minerals deal in the weeks following Zelenskyyโ€™s White House visit on Feb. 28, with signs of tension emerging in the final stretch.

Zelenskyy said the newly signed minerals deal, which grants U.S. firms preferential access to Ukraineโ€™s rare earth and strategic mineral deposits, was the first concrete outcome of the Vatican meetingโ€”and a sign of what could follow.

โ€œIn fact, this is the first tangible outcome of that Vatican meeting, making it truly historic,โ€ he said.

Byย Tom Ozimek

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