German Chancellor has labelled Donald Trump “selfish” after the US president demanded Ukraine’s rare earth metals in exchange for aid, correspondent Stuart Smith reports.
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00:00We've seen the Trump administration freeze billions in foreign aid.
00:05This has clearly worried countries like Ukraine,
00:08who have been relying on the support of the U.S.
00:11Is this the only way to keep support going by providing an exchange?
00:20Yeah, well, Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor of Germany,
00:23said that he thought this was a very selfish,
00:25very self-centred move and suggested Ukraine's going to need
00:28exactly these kinds of minerals once the war is over
00:31in order to try to rebuild.
00:33But it does appeal to the very transaction, businessman-like nature
00:36of Donald Trump's politics.
00:38Indeed, it was the Ukrainians that suggested it to him initially last year
00:41as one of the ways that potentially would keep him interested
00:44in Ukraine's survival for Russia's war in Ukraine.
00:49Now, one senior Ukrainian official speaking anonymously
00:52said that having a strategic U.S. interest in Ukraine
00:55is a key component to Ukraine's future.
00:58So it's something Ukraine is up for.
01:00It says it's ready to sign documents about joint agreements.
01:03But this is just Donald Trump riffing at the moment.
01:05There's no particular detail about what exactly he's suggesting here.