President Donald Trump signed off on a recent U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal to strengthen his hand in future peace talks with Russia, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday in a high-profile appearance in Los Angeles, the New York Post reported.

The agreement, reached April 30, establishes a 50/50 investment fund for Ukrainian oil, natural gas, and mineral development — a move Bessent said was intended not just to help recoup U.S. aid dollars but to give Trump added clout in negotiations with the Kremlin.

“The economic partnership was his idea, and he believed that it would do several things,” Bessent said in his keynote address at the Milken Institute Global Conference. “It would create more leverage for him with the Russian leadership when it was time to go to them. So the idea was, start with Ukraine, sign a deal that shows that there is no daylight between the U.S. and Ukrainian people.”

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