WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Thursday urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to "tone down" its stance and return negotiations over a minerals deal with the United States.

"They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal," Waltz told Fox News.

The proposed agreement, which reportedly demands a 50-percent share of Ukrainian natural resources, was initially presented by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the Munich Security Conference.

"You really need to sign this," Bessent reportedly told Zelensky during their meeting.

However, Kiev has so far rejected the U.S. proposal. "I can't sell our state," Zelensky said on Wednesday.

"In total, the United States separately gave us about 67 billion U.S. dollars in weapons, and we received 31.5 billion dollars in budget support," he said, adding: "But one cannot count up to 500 billion dollars and say, 'give us back 500 billion dollars in minerals,' that's not a serious discussion."

Despite this, the Ukrainian leader said Ukraine is grateful for the support and is open to discussing a deal that includes U.S. security guarantees for his country.

Following a meeting in Kiev with Keith Kellogg, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Zelensky described their talks as "productive" in a post on the social platform X on Thursday.

"Ukraine is ready for a strong, effective investment and security agreement with the President of the United States. We have proposed the fastest and most constructive way to achieve results," he wrote. Enditem

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