The head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, David Arakhamia, believes that President Volodymyr Zelensky may sign an agreement with the United States on subsoil the very next day after its ratification by the Verkhovna Rada.
The politician expressed this opinion on TV, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“After the ratification, I hope that tomorrow, it will be signed by the President of Ukraine as soon as possible. …And we are moving on to the second stage, where our government negotiators have to complete the process of agreeing and signing two other, more technical agreements on the establishment of a joint institution. It will include three people from the Ukrainian side and three people from the US side who will decide on investment projects that will be considered and financed by this fund [the Reconstruction Investment Fund],” Arakhamia said.
According to him, work on technical agreements may take about a month, according to preliminary estimates.
“And we hope that the Fund will be formed by the fall and start working,” the MP predicted.
He also noted that the US side will not ratify the agreement, as it is not required by US law.
“American law does not regulate the issue [of ratification], they can simply sign [the agreement]. And this is important for us. Given that there are issues related to taxes and fees in the subsoil agreement. In particular, part of the rent payments goes to our joint fund for management and economic development. Therefore, this requires only the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. That is why we have ratified this agreement,” Arakhamia said.
As reported by Ukrinform, on May 8, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on ratification of the Agreement between the governments of Ukraine and the United States on the establishment of the US-Ukraine Investment Fund for Reconstruction (subsoil agreement).
On April 30, Ukraine and the United States signed an agreement to establish the Reconstruction Investment Fund.
Soon, at least two more agreements are to be submitted to the government to regulate the launch of the fund.
Source: MP: Zelensky may sign agreement with US on subsoil on May 9
