(AP) — Trump said the United States was signing bilateral agreements with the Congo and Rwanda that will unlock new opportunities for the United States to access critical minerals. The deals will benefit all three nations’ economies.

“And we’ll be involved with sending some of our biggest and greatest U.S. companies over to the two countries,” Trump said. He added, “Everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”

The region, rich in critical minerals, has been of interest to Trump as Washington looks for ways to circumvent China to acquire rare earths, essential to manufacturing fighter jets, cellphones and more. China accounts for nearly 70% of the world’s rare earth mining and controls roughly 90% of global rare earths processing.