The White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on Friday that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was expected to sign a minerals agreement with the United States imminently, as part of broader negotiations to end the war with Russia.

“Here’s the bottom line: President Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term,” Waltz said during remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

The statement comes amid an increasingly public dispute between Zelenskyy and Donald Trump, with Waltz telling Fox News this week that the Ukrainian leader needed to “tone it down” and sign the proposed agreement.

The proposed partnership would give the United States access to Ukraine’s deposits of critical minerals including aluminum, gallium and titanium, Waltz said – materials that are essential for advanced technology manufacturing such as semiconductors and have significant military applications. The so-called agreement is also being positioned as a way for American taxpayers to recoup some of their investment in Ukraine’s defense, with US aid to Ukraine having exceeded $175bn, according to Waltz.

Waltz indicated that interest in a deal was first broached by Zelenskyy last September as part of his “victory plan” seeking US investment, but it is not clear whether any idea revolved around the US developing rare earth mineral resources in Ukraine.

Last week, the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, presented Zelenskyy with the draft proposal for that plan, with Ukraine providing approximately $500bn worth of rare earth elements to the US.

The mounting tensions took a turn for the worse when Ukraine was excluded from US-Russian talks in Saudi Arabia this week. Zelenskyy’s subsequent criticism drew a sharp rebuke from Trump, who made unfounded claims that the Ukrainian leader had “started” the war. Zelenskyy responded by accusing Trump of being caught in a “disinformation bubble” – Trump then called the Ukrainian leader a dictator.

Still, Waltz, who recently returned from Saudi Arabia where he met with Russian officials, said negotiations to end the conflict were progressing. He claimed Putin and Zelenskyy had credited Trump’s leadership as crucial to the peace process, with both leaders allegedly indicating “only he could drive an end to this war”.

The national security adviser also made an increasingly familiar criticism of European allies’ financial support for Ukraine, noting that European contributions were primarily in the form of loans, often repaid through interest on frozen Russian assets, while US aid had been direct funding.

The push on signing the minerals agreement comes as the Trump administration steps up diplomatic engagement with European leaders, with Waltz noting that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, was expected to visit Washington on Monday and the United Kingdom’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Friday.

The White House’s aggressive stance for a peace deal came as the third day of CPAC being held outside Washington was under way. The widely attended conservative conference has already featured high-profile speeches from JD Vance, the former White House strategist Steve Bannon and tech billionaire Elon Musk, with Trump scheduled to be the finale on Saturday.

The conference has not been without controversy. The French far-right leader Jordan Bardella cancelled his scheduled speech on Friday morning, citing Bannon’s “allusion to Nazi ideology” after the former Trump aide finished his Thursday speech with a shot-out, outstretched arm gesture that resembled a Nazi-style salute.

Vance used his earlier CPAC appearance to mark one month of the Trump administration, doubling down on his controversial claims about “unvetted foreign migrants” being the greatest threat facing Europe and the United States – remarks that had already stunned European leaders during his recent overseas trip as all-out war has killed more Europeans in Ukraine than any other conflict in over a century.

Trump elaborated on his position regarding Zelenskyy and peace negotiations in a Fox News radio interview with Brian Kilmeade on Friday morning, saying: “I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings.”

He went so far as to say he regretted Bessent’s recent trip to Ukraine to negotiate the rare earth minerals proposal, saying: “Frankly I wish he didn’t go there. It was a wasted trip.”

When it came to Zelenskyy’s complaints about being excluded from peace negotiations, Trump was dismissive.

“He’s been at meetings for three years with a president who didn’t know what the hell he was doing. He’s been in meetings for three years and nothing got done.”

This article was amended on 21 February 2025. Titanium is one of the minerals in Ukraine’s deposits, not tritium.