Group of Seven nations will tighten the screws on the Russian “war machine” for its invasion of Ukraine, during the opening day of their meeting in Hiroshima on Friday, with fresh sanctions and export controls, a senior U.S. official has revealed.
G7 leaders were expected to reiterate their support for Ukraine in its war against Russia in a standalone joint statement later Friday that outlines the new measures and highlights the bloc’s continued unity on the issue after nearly 15 months of fighting.
"Our commitment to continue tightening the screws on Russia remains as strong as it was last year,” the senior U.S. official told reporters.
“We will continue to expand export controls to make it even harder for Russia to sustain its war machine,” the official added.
Washington will “extensively” restrict categories of goods “key to the battlefield,” while also cutting off roughly 70 entities from Russia and third countries from receiving U.S. exports by adding them to the Commerce Department blacklist, the official said. It will also announce around 300 new sanctions on individuals, entities, vessels and aircraft for circumventing measures already in place or financially facilitating the conflict, including designations “across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.”
G7 leaders will be aiming to tighten the noose on Moscow by closing off evasion loopholes, reducing the reliance on Russian energy over the medium to long term and keeping key assets frozen until the war is halted.
“So, bottom line is: We’re upping the economic pressure on Russia,” the official said.
The U.S. official said that the steps would align even more closely with those imposed by the European Union and United Kingdom.
On Friday, the U.K. also announced a raft of new measures, including a ban on Russian diamonds — an industry estimated to be worth $4 billion to $5 billion annually — as well as imports of Russian-origin copper, aluminum and nickel. London also said it was preparing new sanctions targeting an additional 86 people and companies from “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s military industrial complex.”
“As today’s sanctions announcements demonstrate, the G7 remains unified in the face of the threat from Russia and steadfast in our support for Ukraine,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.
Ahead of the U.S. and British announcements, the Russian and Chinese envoys to Japan slammed the G7 summit as not being representative of the international community, accusing the grouping of slandering Beijing and Moscow and actively spreading misinformation.
Chinese Ambassador Wu Jianghao and Russian Charge d'Affaires Gennady Ovechko "expressed deep concerns about the relevant information disclosed so far," according to a statement published on the Chinese Embassy’s website Thursday, a day after their meeting.
Asked about the remarks at a regular news conference in Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the G7 meeting “is not about one country or another; it is about what these collective economies can do as a whole in partnership for the world, for the international community.”
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