On September 1, 2021, at 1:34 P.M. EDT the U.S. senior administration officials held an embargoed press call befor the meeting of the U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The transcript of the call was later published on the White House website.
According to the transcript, the United States agreed on direct loan for Ukraine in the amount of $3 billion after signing the memorandum of understanding.
“On the economic side, we’ll use this visit to deepen our already robust economic partnership. Our two countries will finalize an MOU on commercial cooperation, and the Export-Import Bank and the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine will sign an MOU with an initial amount of $3 billion in EXIM support,” a senior administration official said.
Yesterday, September 1, 2021, the Government Portal of Ukraine reported that during the visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the United States, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and the Export-Import Bank of the United States of America.
The document is targeted at strengthening economic cooperation between Ukraine and the United States on trade in goods and services. In particular, it is planned that the Ministry of Economy and Eximbank will work out options for using medium-term and long-term guarantees, as well as direct loans from Eximbank to finance U.S. exports to Ukraine totaling $3 billion.
At the same time, the bank has no restrictions on concluding financing agreements, which allows in the future to consider financing beyond $3 billion.
“We hope we will be able to implement projects for a total amount that will be much more than the specified $3 billion. It is important for us to strategically develop cooperation with the Eximbank of the U.S., turn it into one of the pillars of Ukraine's transformation, and strengthen our cooperation with EU financial institutions and international financial institutions. We hope partners from the United States will provide reliable financial support for such cooperation," Oleksiy Lyubchenko, the Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine stressed.
In turn, American bankers reaffirmed their readiness to continue active cooperation and expressed confidence that the signing of the Memorandum would form the base for the implementation of ambitious projects and contribute to shaping much stronger economic ties between the two countries.