so today marks three years since the start of the war in Ukraine and French president Emanuel macron will be at the White House today where he's expected to urge president Trump to do more for Ukraine in those peace talks now Ukrainian president zalinski is even offering to step down if uh if it will secure peace in NATO membership for his country joining us now as a key figure in those negotiations president Trump's National Security advisor uh Michael Waltz uh Congressman thanks so much for joining the program yeah thank you Lawrence it's good to be with
you so so tell me what's the latest on these peace talks are y'all close to a deal I know secretary Rubio said that you know you guys had a deal that was going to go to the parliament but then zalinski said something different to the public so have you guys reached some sort of uh deal right now well yeah listen the negotiations are literally happening as we speak uh we have been all hands on deck secretary bessent our treasury secretary has been leading the charge and uh frustrations are are are high frankly uh the United
States has stepped forward uh for Ukraine in a historic and tremendous way uh we are heading you know today into the three-year anniversary of this War uh and we we expect uh the ukrainians to to realize the opportunity that this is and president zalinski to realize the opportunity that this is to be co-invested with the United States of America in the future of UK Ukraine in the future of its economy uh and growing the pie uh in terms of its natural resources uh that not not only helps Ukraine but recoups these hundreds of billions of
dollars for the Ukrainian people uh and for the American taxpayer uh going forward so uh we expect to get this deal done president Trump expects to get this deal done uh and I think you will see that in in very short order so it looks like the conversation the he was asked the question zinski the president of Ukraine about NATO membership and he said he's willing to step down now the Secretary of Defense pet Hees have said that that's not realistic I've talked to the president he's pretty much said the same thing in private and
public if is that back on the table because he was asked that question and he said that he would be willing to step down that is not back on the table uh I do not see the United States uh having Ukraine enter into NATO and then having United States troops uh essentially obligated uh immediately uh you in terms of of Article 5 or coming uh to have US troops coming directly in for the defense uh of Ukraine that is very different I want to be clear on that we have President Mone coming we have uh
prime minister starmer of the United Kingdom coming that's very different than the US commitment to Nato and existing NATO countries we are absolutely uh committed to Nato r large our article 5 uh uh treaty agreements with other NATO countries but the security guarantees for Ukraine is a different conversation one of the things that we fully support is both France and the United Kingdom and other Europeans saying they would be willing to enter into very strong security guarantees for the future of Ukraine that's a different conversation that's one uh that we are encouraged by because Lawrence
we've been asking for years for Europe to step up for its own defense and we've been asking for years for Europe to pay for its own defense as the US taxpayer uh has been taking an unfair burden uh into for for decades now Congressman I want to go into the specifics of the minerals but before I do that I want to talk about this meeting with Putin I guess my question is is there a meeting on the calendar I know you had previously said that the meeting will happen once there is something to actually discuss
that you guys have talked about a deal so is there something on the calender for the president to meet with Putin in person at not at this moment we're having a series of uh negotiations and engagements uh at uh at my level uh and Below uh we are having uh a a back and forth on kind of what uh things would look like going forward not only to get us to a ceasefire in Ukraine but what a broader us Russia relationship would look like going forward an important First Step uh is uh secretary Rubio H
and his counterpart lavro and getting our embassies back functioning again it's very difficult Lawrence to move the relationship forward if we don't have functioning embassies this is the president talking about the mineral deal let's play a little bit we're going to get our money back CU it's not it's not fair it's just not fair and we will see but I I think we're pretty close to a deal and we better be close to a deal because that has been a horrible situation so tell me specifically Congressman what does a mineral deal look like does that
mean that America by extension if we get these minerals that we're going to guard our minerals as well um are we talking about a large large portion of minerals part of Ukraine what does that look like well look I mean for example there is enough uh aluminum if their uh if their refineries uh were full F capable if we had that outside investment for us Imports for an entire year there's enough gallium there's enough tridium there's uh there's titanium one of the largest titanium reserves in all of Europe but that will take investment to get
it to full capacity so you know our position has been look 50% of something that is much larger growing the pie is better than the 100% of of where they are today so let's grow together in an economic partnership and of course the US would protect our assets for which we are invested in this could mean trillions not only for the Ukrainian people but for us and for stability for the region and that economic investment is one of the best security guarantees that Ukraine could hope for you know Congress before I let you go I
got to talk about the Israel Hamas deal and it looks like they're asking for an extension here last week something tragic happened they sent uh the bodies back uh three bodies two of them were the were the children but the mother was not there they have since brought the mom back home um it doesn't look like Hamas is being an honest broker here and I know the president has has said previously all hell is going to break loose in the Middle East is Hamas listening to the president oh Hamas has listened to the president I
remind you and and and everyone Lawrence that we wouldn't even be in this position 29 hostages are alive today and reunited with their families uh because the whole world listened when President Trump said there be all held to pay after the Biden Administration couldn't get this done for 15 months so absolutely they are they're afraid of President Trump uh period uh and that's why we've seen any movement at all but is has their behavior been despicable has it been disgusting should it surprise anyone this is a terrorist organization no different than Isis uh and uh
you the the really the needle we're trying to thread right now is getting all of our hostages out at the same time though Hamas will not rule Gaza period they have a couple of off-ramps that we put on the table uh but Hamas will not rule Gaza they will not cause another October 7th and we will work with Israel to make sure that doesn't happen yeah anybody that knows the president I don't think it's best to call his bluff uh thank thank you Congressman I appreciate you
