(Bloomberg) -- Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers denounced the pressure being applied by the Trump administration on Ukraine to turn over a share of its natural resources to the US, drawing a sharp distinction with American traditions in past major conflicts.
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“What the Trump administration seems to be proposing — and to be fair, we have not seen all the details — is a Versailles-like agreement imposed, not on aggressors, but imposed on the victims of aggression,” Summers said on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin. He was referring to the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles, which imposed strict financial and other penalties on Germany and is widely viewed as ensuring the inevitability of another major war.
Summers spoke on Monday hours after Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said her nation is in the final stages of talks with the US over a deal to give Washington a cut of its natural mineral resources. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in a Financial Times weekend opinion piece that the deal was focused on “turbocharging the country’s economic growth.” Bessent argued the agreement “aligns the interest of the American people with those of the people of Ukraine.”
Summers, a Harvard University professor and paid contributor to Bloomberg TV, drew a distinction between the contours reported of the proposed Ukraine agreement and the post-World War II American initiative to fund the economic reconstruction of western Europe, known as the Marshall Plan.
“After World War II, we provided the key finance that enabled the rebuilding and reconstruction of western Europe,” which was central to US success in the Cold War, Summers said. “Now, I recognize that there is a need for pragmatism. I am not one who believes that it is feasible for the United States to underwrite every Ukrainian aspiration or desire,” he said, adding that he backed efforts to end the war that began with Russia’s 2022 invasion.
The Treasury didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
1938 Mistake
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told reporters on Sunday the US dropped its demand for Kyiv to commit to paying $500 billion from resource extraction to a fund as a form of repayment for US aid. Zelenskiy also disputed the figure, saying it was closer to $90 billion.