For many years, while China strategically secured minerals from around the world, the United States rarely used foreign policy to obtain the minerals it needs. That has finally changed — and dramatically so. Within the first 40 days of President Trump’s term, he has expressed interest in acquiring Greenland for its rare earths; annexing Canada, with its vast reserves of uranium and copper; and securing control over Ukraine’s rare earths and titanium in exchange for continued U.S. support.

After the blowup between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday in the Oval Office, the fate of the Ukraine minerals deal is uncertain. Mr. Zelensky said he is still “ready” to sign a deal; on Monday, Mr. Trump said he did not believe the deal was dead.

Whether the Ukraine deal is eventually signed or not, incorporating minerals into foreign policy is crucial for U.S. national security. However, without dedicating government investment and diplomatic resources — as China has done — this initiative remains a hollow effort and may fail to deliver any results.

With less than 2 percent of the world’s reserves of rare earths, graphite, cobalt and nickel, the United States must work closely with resource-rich nations to make sure American companies can get the minerals they need to build, among other things,66jogo phones, batteries for electric vehicles and semiconductors. China has similar challenges and has made minerals diplomacy central to its foreign policy. Despite accounting for only 1 percent to 10 percent of global lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper production, China imports enough to process more than 65 percent of some of these metals and 90 percent of rare earths. This level of control is the outcome of years of strategic industrial planning and foreign policy efforts by Beijing.

Mr. Trump appears to be taking a page from China’s playbook of active minerals diplomacy. The draft agreement with Ukraine would reportedly create a fund controlled by the United States and Ukraine to receive future revenue from Ukraine’s natural resources. But if it is signed, it is not clear whether such an agreement will actually enhance U.S. mineral security. In fact, it will be decades before we see the impact of this agreement, if at all.

The United States has seemingly minimal knowledge of Ukraine’s underground resources. There is no modern mapping of the country’s rare earth deposits; the most recent surveys are believed to have been conducted 30 to 60 years ago by what was then the Soviet Union. Without up-to-date geological data, it is impossible to determine whether these resources are economically viable for extraction. If the ore grade is too low, the deposits are too small or the byproducts aren’t valuable enough, private companies are unlikely to invest the $500 million to $1 billion needed to develop a mine and separation plant.

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