The G7 tightens sanctions on Russia and seeks to reduce trade dependence on China

HIROSHIMA, Japan, May 19 (Reuters) – The leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies moved on Friday to tighten sanctions against Russia, while a draft statement to be issued after their talks in the Japanese city of Hiroshima highlighted the need to reduce dependence on trade with Russia. Porcelain.

The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), who will be joined this weekend by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have vowed to restrict any exports to Russia that could help President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of its neighbor and stop sanctions.

“Today’s actions will further reinforce the vice over Putin’s ability to carry out his barbaric invasion and further our global efforts to cut off Russian attempts to evade sanctions,” the US Treasury Department secretary said. , Janet Yellen, in a statement accompanying a raft of the new US measures.

A statement issued by the G7 leaders said the restrictions would cover exports of industrial machinery, tools and technology useful for Russia’s war effort, while efforts would be sought to limit Russian income from trade in metals and diamonds.

On China, which the G7 powers increasingly view as a threat to economic security, they agreed that its status as the world’s second-largest economy required efforts to foster cooperation, an early draft of the final statement seen by Reuters said.

“Our political approaches are not designed to harm China, we do not seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development,” said the draft, which is still subject to change, calling for “stable and constructive” ties with Beijing.

Nonetheless, the draft urged action to “reduce excessive dependencies” in critical supply chains and counter “malign practices” in technology transfer and data disclosure.

He reaffirmed the need for peace in the Taiwan Strait and urged China to put pressure on Russia to end the aggression in Ukraine.

NUCLEAR SYMBOLISM

The G7 – the United States, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Canada – will use the three-day meeting to discuss strategy on a conflict in Ukraine that shows no signs of relief.

The venue for the summit, Hiroshima, was destroyed by US nuclear bombing 78 years ago that ended World War II. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who represents Hiroshima in Japan’s lower house of parliament, said he was chosen by him for the world meeting. focus attention on gun control.

Russia’s threats of possible use of nuclear weapons, along with North Korea’s and Iran’s nuclear programs, have added to proliferation concerns.

In the draft, the G7 countries, including France, Britain and the United States, which have nuclear weapons, expressed their “commitment to achieving a world without nuclear weapons” through a “realistic, pragmatic and responsible approach.”

Having emerged as the world’s wealthiest nations after World War II, the G7 democracies have found themselves increasingly challenged by a rising China and an unpredictable Russia.

Amid evidence that existing Russian sanctions are being weakened by circumvention, they said the group was “compromising” with countries through which G7-restricted goods, services or technology could transit into Russia.

“Essentially the aim is to provide clarifications to make circumvention more difficult,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters. While no country was named in the G7 statement, a separate statement from the European Union said it had called on Central Asian states to guard against circumvention.

breakdowns German trade data shows that its exports to countries bordering Russia have risen sharply, fueling concerns about re-exporting goods from those neighbors.

It was not immediately clear how much the new sanctions effort would affect Russia, whose finance they have already come under pressure from moves to cut revenue from their vast energy reserves.

“The wording is quite open,” a senior EU diplomat said of the G7 language designed to allow for different national approaches.

Ukraine has urged its Western allies to go further in isolating Russia, for example, squeezing gaps in the financial sector.

“Sanctions can certainly be tightened on the (Russian) banking sector,” said John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine who now works at the Atlantic Council think tank. “They have gone after several of them, but others are in a position to operate.”

DIAMONDS LEFT FOR LATER

Separately, the US administration added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist and Britain published plans to ban imports of Russian diamonds, copper, aluminum and nickel, although data shows that imports of those products by Russia into the UK were small.

Reflecting the EU’s view that broader diamond sanctions would only shift Russia’s trade away from Belgium’s established gem capital of Antwerp, the G7 draft simply referred to possible moves towards future restrictive measures.

Zelenskiy is due to arrive late Saturday on a French plane after attending the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia.

The G7 countries promised him more military and financial aid. US President Joe Biden told his fellow leaders that he supported a joint effort with allies to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets, a senior administration official said.

Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Susan Heavey, John Irish, and Andreas Rinke; Edited by David Dolan and Alistair Bell

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