Congress moves on Ukraine aid. Doubts about US leadership persist.

America’s allies around the world breathed a sigh of relief on Saturday when the U.S. House of Representatives finally approved $61 billion dollars in military aid to Ukraine – assistance that had been held up for months.

The delay had prompted speculation that the United States had definitively turned inward, in an isolationist tendency to pay attention more to domestic affairs than to global crises.

America’s allies see Washington’s resumption of military aid to Ukraine as a sign that it is still ready to play a global leader’s role. But the debate before the aid vote revealed a less certain message.

The vote seemed to give the lie to that. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lauded the decision for putting the U.S. back in its rightful place as leader of the free world. “Thank you America,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

In fact, the congressional vote sent mixed signals about America’s place in the world and Washington’s appetite for maintaining a strong global leadership role. In the end, it went the way U.S. allies had hoped it would. But the debate was long and bitter, and reflected a growing reluctance among Republicans to play an active role in world affairs.

“American internationalism is still robust,” says Charles Kupchan, a foreign policy expert. But “the internationalism the U.S. has practiced since 1941 can no longer be taken for granted.”

Shortly after the U.S. House of Representatives approved long-stalled military assistance for Ukraine, the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, lauded the vote for putting the United States back in its rightful place as leader of the free world.

“Thank you America!” Mr. Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel Saturday. “Democracy and freedom will always have global significance and will never fail as long as America helps to protect it.”

But in reality the vote sent mixed signals about America’s place in the world and Washington’s appetite for maintaining a strong leadership role, some foreign policy analysts say.

America’s allies see Washington’s resumption of military aid to Ukraine as a sign that it is still ready to play a global leader’s role. But the debate before the aid vote revealed a less certain message.

“American leadership in the world is not dead yet,” says Peter Feaver, director of Duke University’s Program in American Grand Strategy. “But the fact it took so long and the vote was so close is ominous and shows there’s still something of a fight.”

The Ukraine assistance – part of a larger package of $95 billion in foreign military aid that also helps Israel and Taiwan – was expected to easily win Senate approval Tuesday before President Biden signs it into law. Pentagon officials say Ukraine could start seeing fresh weaponry within days. 

Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inspects the fortification lines in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine earlier this month.

Saturday’s House vote prompted a sigh of relief among U.S. allies, who had worried for months that the aid hold-up signaled rising U.S. isolationism and the end of Ronald Reagan’s vision of America as a force for global freedom.

“America’s back, and we have our allies’ back now,” Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, promised Sunday in a U.S. television interview.

Ukraine aid proponents praised Speaker Mike Johnson’s shift in attitude, from opposition to support of the aid package, as emblematic of America’s return to its traditional global leadership role. President Zelenskyy singled out Mr. Johnson for a decision that “keeps history on the right track.”

But a majority of House Republicans voted against the $61 billion in Ukraine aid, forcing Mr. Johnson to rely on Democrats to get it passed.

The Republican vote reflects a number of recent public opinion surveys showing that the Republican electorate is increasingly skeptical about a strong U.S. role in global affairs. Many voters are drawn instead to former President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach to the world.

For the first time in nearly a half-century, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found in its October 2023 survey that a majority of Republicans preferred to see the United States “stay out of – rather than take an active part in – world affairs.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson talks to reporters just after the House approved $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel, and other U.S. allies on Saturday.

That marked a stark shift from 2015, when the same survey found Republicans more likely than Democrats to favor a strong international role.

The Chicago Council attributed the change to “Trump Republicans,” but it is not new, says Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington who served on former President Barack Obama’s National Security Council.

“Trump is as much a symptom as he is a cause of America’s inward turn,” he suggests.

Calling this new focus “something that is here to stay,” Dr. Kupchan points out that U.S. political leaders have tapped into the shift since President Obama’s campaign issued a bumper sticker declaring “It’s time for nation-building at home.”

Dr. Kupchan says he is more worried by what he calls the “bigger message” sent by the long and bitter debate over the foreign aid package.

“What was so painfully on display and what the world now has to grapple with is an America of such political dysfunction and divisions that it will be difficult to predict where we go from here and where the United States will stand on key issues from one week to the next,” Dr. Kupchan says.

Speaker Johnson may have eventually shown the world that “you can count on America to do the right thing,” Duke’s Dr. Feaver says, paraphrasing Winston Churchill. And “there’s still a strong bipartisan majority that says America is able and determined to lead.” But that does not obscure the extent to which a torn and chaotic Republican Party has damaged America’s global standing, he adds.

The approval of Ukraine aid tells the world that while America’s leadership instincts remain intact, says Dr. Kupchan, there is no guarantee they will endure.

“The good news out of this vote is that American internationalism is still robust,” he says. “The bad news is that it took so long – and that while Washington dithered, Ukraine was left to defend itself against Russian aggression.

“That,” he adds, “puts in stark relief the degree to which the internationalism the U.S. has practiced since 1941 can no longer be taken for granted.”

Lithium Americas Closes US$275 Million Underwritten Public Offering

(All amounts in US$ unless otherwise indicated)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lithium Americas Corp. (TSX: LAC) (NYSE: LAC) (“Lithium Americas” or the “Company”) announced the closing of its previously announced underwritten public offering (the “Offering”) of its common shares (the “Common Shares”). The Company issued 55,000,000 Common Shares, issued at a price of $5.00 per Common Share (the “Issue Price”), for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of $275,000,000.

The net proceeds from the Offering are intended to be used to fund the advancement of construction and development of the Company’s Thacker Pass lithium project in Humboldt County, Nevada (“Thacker Pass”).

Jonathan Evans, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lithium Americas said, “We are pleased to have completed this key financing milestone, which together with the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (the “Loan”), satisfies the funding condition to closing the General Motors Holdings LLC (“GM”) second tranche investment (the “Tranche 2 Investment”). At the same time, the Offering and GM funding will allow the Company to meet the financing-related condition relating to closing the DOE Loan conditional commitment (the “Conditional Commitment”). These financings are expected to fully fund Thacker Pass Phase 1 construction.”

Mr. Evans continued, “With site preparation for major earthworks completed, our focus is on de-risking construction execution by increasing detailed engineering and progressing procurement packages. Once the remaining closing conditions are met and the Tranche 2 Investment and the DOE Loan close, which we anticipate to occur later this year if conditions to finalization of the Loan are met, Thacker Pass will advance to full notice to proceed and major construction to support America's energy security and emissions reduction aspirations. Our team continues to focus on our commitment to sustainably develop Thacker Pass toward production."

For the DOE Loan, if finalized, it is possible that the terms of the finalized Loan agreement may change from the time of Conditional Commitment. While the Conditional Commitment indicates DOE’s intent to finance Thacker Pass, the Company must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions before the DOE enters into definitive financing documents and funds the Loan.

ABOUT LITHIUM AMERICAS

The Company is a Canadian-based lithium resource company that owns 100% of the Thacker Pass project located in Humboldt County in northern Nevada, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Lithium Nevada Corp.

INVESTOR CONTACT

Virginia Morgan, VP, IR and ESG+1-778-726-4070ir@lithiumamericas.com

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, and “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively referred to as “forward-looking information” (“FLI”)). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are FLI and can be identified by the use of statements that include, but are not limited to, words, such as “anticipate,” “plan,” “continues,” “estimate,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “projects,” “predict,” “proposes,” “potential,” “target,” “implement,” “scheduled,” “forecast,” “intend,” “would,” “could,” “might,” “should,” “believe” and similar terminology, or statements that certain actions, events or results “may,” “could,” “would,” “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved. FLI in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements related to the anticipated use of net proceeds of the Offering; the expected operations, financial results and condition of the Company; the Company’s future objectives and strategies to achieve those objectives, including the future prospects of the Company; the estimated cash flow, capitalization and adequacy thereof for the Company; the estimated costs of the development of Thacker Pass, including timing, progress, approach, continuity or change in plans, construction, commissioning, milestones, anticipated production and results thereof and expansion plans; expectations regarding accessing funding from the Tranche 2 Investment and the ATVM Loan Program; anticipated timing to resolve, and the expected outcome of, any complaints or claims made or that could be made concerning the permitting process in the United States for Thacker Pass; capital expenditures and programs; estimates, and any change in estimates, of the mineral resources and mineral reserves at Thacker Pass; development of mineral resources and mineral reserves; the expected benefits of the separation transaction undertaken by the Company to acquire ownership of the North American business assets of Lithium Americas Corp. (now named Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp.) (the “Arrangement”) to, and resulting treatment of, shareholders and the Company; the anticipated effects of the Arrangement; information concerning the tax treatment of the Arrangement; government regulation of mining operations and treatment under governmental and taxation regimes; the future price of commodities, including lithium; the creation of a battery supply chain in the United States to support the electric vehicle market; the realization of mineral resources and mineral reserves estimates, including whether certain mineral resources will ever be developed into mineral reserves, and information and underlying assumptions related thereto; the timing and amount of future production; currency exchange and interest rates; the Company’s ability to raise capital; expected expenditures to be made by the Company on Thacker Pass; ability to produce high purity battery grade lithium products; settlement of agreements related to the operation and sale of mineral production as well as contracts in respect of operations and inputs required in the course of production; the timing, cost, quantity, capacity and product quality of production at Thacker Pass; successful development of Thacker Pass, including successful results from the Company’s testing facility and third-party tests related thereto; capital costs, operating costs, sustaining capital requirements, after tax net present value and internal rate of return, payback period, sensitivity analyses, and net cash flows of Thacker Pass; the expected capital expenditures for the construction of Thacker Pass; anticipated job creation and workforce hub at Thacker Pass; the expectation that the project labor agreement with North America’s Building Trades Unions for construction of Thacker Pass will minimize construction risk, ensure availability of skilled labor, address the challenges associated with Thacker Pass’s remote location and be effective in prioritizing employment of local and regional skilled craft workers, including members of underrepresented communities; the Company’s commitment to sustainable development, minimizing the environmental impact at Thacker Pass and plans for phased reclamation during the life of mine; ability to achieve capital cost efficiencies; the Tranche 2 Investment and the potential for additional financing scenarios for Thacker Pass; the expected timetable for completing the Tranche 2 Investment; the ability of the Company to complete the Tranche 2 Investment on the terms and timeline anticipated, or at all; the receipt of required stock exchange and regulatory approvals and authorizations, and the securing of sufficient available funding to complete the development of Phase 1 of Thacker Pass as required for the Tranche 2 Investment; the expected benefits of the Tranche 2 Investment; as well as other statements with respect to management’s beliefs, plans, estimates and intentions, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances, performance or expectations that are not historical facts.

FLI involves known and unknown risks, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results or performance to differ materially. FLI reflects the Company’s current views about future events, and while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of this news release, are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies. Accordingly, there can be no certainty that they will accurately reflect actual results. Assumptions upon which such FLI is based include, without limitation, the ability to raise financing in a timely manner and on acceptable terms; the potential benefits of the Arrangement being realized; the risk of tax liabilities as a result of the Arrangement, and general business and economic uncertainties and adverse market conditions; the risk that the Arrangement may not be tax-free for income tax purposes and potential significant tax liabilities that the Company may be exposed to if the tax-deferred spinoff rules are not met; the risk of tax indemnity obligations owed by the Company to Lithium Argentina following the Arrangement becoming payable, including as a result of events outside of the Company’s control; uncertainties inherent to feasibility studies and mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates; the ability of the Company to secure sufficient additional financing, advance and develop Thacker Pass, and to produce battery grade lithium; the respective benefits and impacts of Thacker Pass when production operations commence; settlement of agreements related to the operation and sale of mineral production as well as contracts in respect of operations and inputs required in the course of production; the Company’s ability to operate in a safe and effective manner, and without material adverse impact from the effects of climate change or severe weather conditions; uncertainties relating to receiving and maintaining mining, exploration, environmental and other permits or approvals in Nevada; demand for lithium, including that such demand is supported by growth in the electric vehicle market; current technological trends; the impact of increasing competition in the lithium business, and the Company’s competitive position in the industry; continuing support of local communities and the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe for Thacker Pass; continuing constructive engagement with these and other stakeholders, and any expected benefits of such engagement; the stable and supportive legislative, regulatory and community environment in the jurisdictions where the Company operates; impacts of inflation, currency exchanges rates, interest rates and other general economic and stock market conditions; the impact of unknown financial contingencies, including litigation costs, environmental compliance costs and costs associated with the impacts of climate change, on the Company’s operations; increased attention to environmental, social, governance and safety (“ESG-S”) and sustainability-related matters, risks related to the Company’s public statements with respect to such matters that may be subject to heightened scrutiny from public and governmental authorities related to the risk of potential “greenwashing” (i.e., misleading information or false claims overstating potential sustainability-related benefits); risks that the Company may face regarding potentially conflicting anti-ESG-S initiatives from certain U.S. state or other governments; estimates of and unpredictable changes to the market prices for lithium products; development and construction costs for Thacker Pass, and costs for any additional exploration work at the project; estimates of mineral resources and mineral reserves, including whether mineral resources not included in mineral reserves will be further developed into mineral reserves; reliability of technical data; anticipated timing and results of exploration, development and construction activities, including the impact of ongoing supply chain disruptions and availability of equipment and supplies on such timing; timely responses from governmental agencies responsible for reviewing and considering the Company’s permitting activities at Thacker Pass; availability of technology, including low carbon energy sources and water rights, on acceptable terms to advance Thacker Pass; the Company’s ability to obtain additional financing on satisfactory terms or at all, including the outcome of the ATVM Loan Program process; government regulation of mining operations and mergers and acquisitions activity, and treatment under governmental, regulatory and taxation regimes; ability to realize expected benefits from investments in or partnerships with third parties; accuracy of development budgets and construction estimates; that the Company will meet its future objectives and priorities; that the Company will have access to adequate capital to fund its future projects and plans; that such future projects and plans will proceed as anticipated; the ability of the Company to satisfy all closing conditions for the Tranche 2 Investment and complete the Tranche 2 Investment in a timely manner; the impact of the Tranche 2 Investment on dilution of shareholders and on the trading prices for, and market for trading in, the securities of the Company; as well as assumptions concerning general economic and industry growth rates, commodity prices, currency exchange and interests rates and competitive conditions. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in such FLI are reasonable, the Company can give no assurance that these assumptions and expectations will prove to be correct.

Readers are cautioned that the foregoing lists of factors are not exhaustive. There can be no assurance that FLI will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. As such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this information, and that this information may not be appropriate for any other purpose, including investment purposes. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in any FLI as a result of the risk factors set out herein and in the Company’s filings with securities regulators.

The FLI contained in this news release is expressly qualified by these cautionary statements. All FLI in this news release speaks as of the date of this news release. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any FLI, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Additional information about these assumptions and risks and uncertainties is contained in the Company’s filings with securities regulators, including the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F and most recent management’s discussion and analysis for our most recently completed financial year and, if applicable, interim financial period, which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. All FLI contained in this news release is expressly qualified by the risk factors set out in the aforementioned documents.