内容摘要：“Overall, we’re determined to seriously look for ways to achieve a long-term peaceful settlement. That is all,” Peskov said.

“Overall, we’re determined to seriously look for ways to achieve a long-term peaceful settlement. That is all,” Peskov said.

“Truly, this is a strategic deal for the creation of an investment partner fund,” said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. “This is truly an equal and good international deal on joint investment in the development and restoration of Ukraine between the governments of the United States and Ukraine.”Ukraine’s economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, flew to Washington on Wednesday to help finalize the deal.

“Together with the United States, we are creating the Fund that will attract global investment to our country,” she said in a post on X after the signing.An ilmenite open pit mine is seen in a canyon in the central region of Kirovohrad, Ukraine, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)An ilmenite open pit mine is seen in a canyon in the central region of Kirovohrad, Ukraine, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

Earlier Wednesday, Bessent said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House — hours after Ukrainian officials indicated a deal was nearly finalized — that there was still work to do.“The Ukrainians decided last night to make some last-minute changes,” Bessent said when asked about reports that Ukraine was ready to agree to the pact. “We’re sure that they will reconsider that. And we are ready to sign this afternoon if they are.”

He didn’t elaborate as to the late changes he said Ukraine made.

The U.S. has been seeking access to more than 20 raw materials deemed strategically critical to its interests, including some non-minerals such as oil and natural gas. Among them areto the country, images of green fields filled with placid sheep against backdrops of snow-capped mountains dominated the country’s marketing abroad.

But over years of decline for global wool prices since — and despite recent rallies — the national flock has steadily diminished. Now dairy holds the biggest share of New Zealand’s agriculture and horticulture-dominant export market.In 2023, Stats NZ, a government agency, said New Zealand in 2022 dipped below five sheep per person for the first time. The national flock had lost a million more sheep in Tuesday’s figures, which recorded livestock numbers as of June 2024.

Toby Williams, a spokesperson for sector lobby group Federated Farmers, said sheep farmers have switched to more lucrative pursuits — dairy, or the conversion of land from farming to pine forestry“If I’m really honest, the wool industry is almost at that tipping point, if not already there, of not having a wool industry anymore,” he said.