Economy and Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the Group of Twenty (G-20) are meeting in Washington today for the first time since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
As part of the Spring Meeting Week of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, financial leaders will attend in person or virtually, and explanations on Russia’s situation in the world economy are expected.
According to press reports, several Western countries want to expel the Eurasian giant from the G-20 as a result of the war.
But Indonesia, which chairs the group this year, remains “impartial”. Other members such as India or China have not condemned it either.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov confirmed his participation, although the United States expressed its desire to exclude Russia from the group.
In this week, an official with the North American country’s Treasury Department said Washington would boycott some sessions of the meetingif the Eurasian nation participates.
The United States and its allies “will continue efforts” to increase economic pressure on Moscow and target those trying to evade sanctions, he warned.
The US position complements an earlier statement by the French Economy Ministryin which they warned that several G7 countries could walk away from the G20 meeting if the Russian representative speaks.
Earlier, in late March, US President Joe Biden believed that Russia should be expelled from the G20, noting that if it can’t be done, “Indonesia and others don’t agree, we have to do it too.” to allow Ukraine to attend the meetings”.
Russia was excluded from the group of the world’s eight most industrialized countries (G-8) in 2014 following the incorporation of Crimea into the federation by popular will expressed in a referendum, but maintains its presence in the G-20.
Russia: The US is trying to ‘tie’ Europe to its gas by imposing sanctions on Moscow
This was stated by Russia’s representative at the United Nations (UN), Dmitri Polianski The US aims to increase the supply of US gas to Europe by encouraging countries on the continent to reject the Russian raw material.
“Our pragmatic American colleagues are shamelessly trying to get the maximum economic benefit for themselves. By pushing Europeans towards ever-tougher economic sanctions, Washington, which suffers the least from this scenario, intends to lock them down over time,” the diplomat told a meeting of the organization’s Security Council.
At the same time, Polianski assured that “the Russian economy is successfully coping with the pressure of sanctions and in this situation is finding new opportunities for its development and new secure partners”.
“The only country that loses in everything that happens is Ukraine in every sense. But the authorities in Kyiv do not seem to have understood it or to pretend that they did not understand it,” added the Russian representative.
(With information from Prensa Latina and Russia Today)