G7 sanctions Russia and cuts China’s trade dependence. Leaders of the world’s richest countries tightened sanctions against Russia and highlighted the need to decrease trade with China in a draft communiqué released in Hiroshima.
This weekend, the Group of Seven (G7) leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, agreed to restrict exports to Russia that could aid President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of his neighbor and prohibit sanctions-busting.
“Today’s actions will further tighten the vice on Putin’s ability to wage his barbaric invasion and will advance our global efforts to cut off Russian attempts to evade sanctions,” U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement accompanying additional U.S. measures.
G7 leaders announced they would restrict exports of industrial machinery, tools, and technology useful to Russia’s war effort and limit Russian metals and diamond profits.
According to an early draft of the final declaration seen by Reuters, G7 governments agreed that China’s standing as the world’s second-largest economy required cooperation.
“Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China, we do not seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development,” the draft, subject to modification, said, calling for “stable and constructive” relations with Beijing.
The document advised actions to “reduce excessive dependencies” in crucial supply chains and combat “malign practices” in technology transfer and data sharing.
It stressed the Taiwan Strait peace and encouraged China to pressure Russia to stop the action in Ukraine.
The G7—the US, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Canada—will discuss Ukraine’s strategy over three days.
Seventy-eight years ago, the U.S. nuclear bombed Hiroshima, the summit site. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who represents Hiroshima in Japan’s lower house, said he chose it for the world summit to highlight arms control.
Russia’s threats and North Korea and Iran’s nuclear programs have raised proliferation concerns.
G7 nations, including nuclear-armed France, Britain, and the US, pledged “commitment to achieving a world without nuclear weapons” through a “realistic, pragmatic, and responsible approach” in the draft.
The G7 democracies, the world’s wealthiest after World War Two, are being threatened by China and Russia.
Despite Russian sanctions, they said the group was “engaging” with countries that may transport G7 goods, services, and technology to Russia.
“Essentially, the aim is to provide for clarification to make circumvention more difficult,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters. In a separate statement, the European Union advised Central Asian states to avoid circumvention.
German exports to Russia’s neighbors have increased substantially, raising fears about re-exportation.
Russia, whose finances have already been pinched by measures to restrict earnings from its massive energy reserves, was unclear how much the fresh sanctions drive would damage it.
“The wordings are quite open,” a senior EU diplomat said of G7 terminology allowing national approaches.
Ukraine has asked its Western friends to further isolate Russia by closing banking loopholes.
“Certainly, sanctions can be toughened on the (Russian) banking sector,” said Atlantic Council think tank member John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. “They’ve gone after several of them, but others are able to operate.”
The U.S. government put dozens of companies on a trade blocklist. At the same time, Britain announced measures to prohibit Russian diamonds, copper, aluminum, and nickel imports, even though Russia’s UK imports were minor.
The G7 draft only mentioned potential restrictive measures, reflecting the EU’s belief that larger diamond penalties would only transfer Russia’s trade away from Antwerp, Belgium.
Zelenskiy will arrive late Saturday on a French plane from the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia.
G7 nations pledged further military and financial aid. A senior administration official said President Joe Biden told fellow leaders he supported a combined effort with allies to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 combat jets.
