The US could be more interested in Ukraine’s fertile soil than rare-earth minerals, Karin Kneissl, former Austrian foreign minister and head of the "G.O.R.K.I." center at St. Petersburg State University, said in an interview with TASS.
She pointed out that like Russia, Ukraine was rich in fertile lands, and major investment houses such as BlackRock, as well as Chinese investors, had expressed an interest in it.
"Food products in general - from orange juice to grain and soy - are oftentimes even more important for many investors, including public funds from Arab countries. Why? Because they need to feed their people, and Ukraine is attractive not only because of its rare-earth elements but also because, in my view, the agriculture issue will be more important in the long-term," she noted.
Kneissl also stressed that Ukraine had lost control of the main mineral deposits. "It has been repeatedly said in the past few weeks that the areas that are now under Russia’s control have major deposits of lithium, the demand for which is growing," the ex-Austrian foreign minister said.
Source
TASS Russian News Agency: "For more than 113 years, TASS has ceaselessly strived to deliver the latest and most accurate news from around the world." https://tass.com/ for TASS in English.
Interviewee
Karin Kneissl, Austria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2019, is well known for her close ties with Russia. Formerly on the board of Russia’s oil giant Rosneft (2021-2022), Kneissl now serves at the Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues (GORKI) think tank, a division of St. Petersburg State University, established in 2023. She has been a long-time contributor at RT, writing opinion pieces on Russia’s relations with the West and other issues. and lectures at the Ryazan State University (RSU). She appears in a number of interviews at SputnikGlobe, listed here.
Photo: Paul Richard Gallagher, 16January, 2018, Wikimedia, CCBY2.0
