2023-05-19 00:38:28
On Friday, the United States unveiled a series of new sanctions targeting the Russian “war machine”, at a time when US President Joe Biden was meeting his G7 counterparts in Japan.
The heads of seven of the world’s richest democracies are meeting in Hiroshima to discuss tightening the screws on the Russian economy and ways to counter China’s growing military and economic might.
And a senior US official in the US administration announced, on Friday, “significant efforts aimed at significantly restricting Russia’s access to products necessary to enhance its combat capabilities on the battlefields.”
The official said that these measures “will prevent regarding 70 entities from Russia and other countries from obtaining US exports by including them in the black trade list. There will be regarding 300 new penalties once morest individuals, entities, ships and aircraft.”
He added that other G7 countries were also preparing to “impose new sanctions and export controls”.
He explained that the group wants to disrupt supplies to Russian military industries, fill loopholes for evading sanctions, and reduce dependence on Russian energy.
The United States will also continue to press to deny Moscow access to the global financial system and keep Russian assets frozen until the war in Ukraine ends.
An EU official said on Thursday that one of the topics listed for discussion was Russia’s multi-billion dollar diamond industry.
“We believe we need to limit Russian commercial exports in this sector,” he added, adding that India’s cooperation would be crucial to the success of the measure.
India accounts for a large part of the world’s rough diamond trade.
“We would like to engage in dialogue with them because the diamond industry is very important in India,” the official said.
There will be an opportunity for the G7 leaders to present their case directly to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country has close military ties with Russia and has so far refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion.
Modi is among several leaders of major developing economies invited to the summit, where the G7 is trying to win over countries skeptical of its approach to Russia’s war in Ukraine and curb China’s influence.
British sanctions package
On Friday, Britain unveiled a package of new sanctions on Russia’s mining sector targeting imports of aluminium, diamonds, copper and nickel in an effort to curtail Moscow’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine.
“As the sanctions announced today show, the G7 remains united in the face of the threat from Russia and steadfast in our support for Ukraine,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also expected to address the summit over the weekend by videoconference, with the Japanese government denying speculation he might appear in person at the last minute.
The talks will officially open Friday followingnoon following Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida took the group’s leaders on a visit to Hiroshima’s Peace Park to lay wreaths at the memorial for the victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
It was reported that Kishida, who hails from Hiroshima and who tried to put the issue of nuclear disarmament on the agenda, insisted that the leaders also visit the museum that documents the suffering and destruction caused by the bomb.
“I hope that here in Hiroshima the G7 leaders and leaders from other places will demonstrate their commitment to peace, which will be remembered,” Al-Khamees said.
However, there is little desire to reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons at a time when Moscow has vaguely threatened to use them and North Korea is raising fears of a new nuclear test.
Biden will become the second US president to visit the city that Washington bombed at the end of World War II with a nuclear bomb, although, like former US President Barack Obama, he is not expected to apologize for the attack.
China
Apart from Ukraine, China will dominate the three-day talks.
The focus will be on diversifying vital supply chains away from China and protecting sectors from “economic coercion”.
But European countries insist that this does not mean severing ties with China, one of the world’s largest markets.
“We want to organize global supply relations, trade and investment relations in such a way that the risks do not increase depending on specific countries,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters in Hiroshima.
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