Biden says G7 must unite, sanctions target Putin’s ‘war machine’

the president of United States Joe Biden, told allies that “we have to stand together” against Russia, as world leaders gathered this Sunday (26) in a summit of the G7 in the Bavarian Alps, which will be dominated by the war in Ukraine and its painful impact on food and energy supplies around the world.

At the beginning of the meeting, four members of the Group of Seven rich countries mobilized to ban gold imports Russian as part of efforts to tighten sanctions on Moscow and cut off its means of funding the invasion of ukraine .

However, it was not immediately clear whether there was consensus on the change, with European Council President Charles Michel saying the issue would need to be handled carefully or risk backfire.

Western countries gathered around Kiev when the Russia invaded Ukraine in February, but more than four months after the war, that unit is being tested with rising inflation and recovering energy shortages from its own citizens.

Scolded by Ukraine for not going far enough to punish Russia, G7 leaders were also having “really constructive” talks about a possible price cap on Russian oil imports, a German government source said earlier.

At the start of a bilateral meeting, Biden thanked the German chancellor Olaf Scholz for showing leadership in Ukraine and said that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin , failed to break through its unity. Scholz faced criticism at home and abroad for his handling of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We can get through all of this and come out stronger,” Biden said.

“Because Putin has been counting on it from the start that somehow NATO and the G7 would splinter. But we didn’t and we won’t.”

Britain said the ban on Russian gold imports was aimed at wealthy Russians who buy gold bullion to reduce the financial impact of Western sanctions. Russian gold exports were worth $15.45 billion last year.

“The measures we are announcing today will hit the Russian oligarchs directly and strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.

“We need to deprive the Putin regime of its funding. The UK and our allies are doing just that.”

UK , United States, Canada and Japan will ban Russian gold imports. THE France also supported the movement.

On the oil price ceiling and the gold import ban, Michel said the issue needed to be discussed further.

“I’m careful and cautious, we’re ready to get into the details,” he said. “We are ready to make a decision together with our partners, but we want to make sure that what we decide will have a negative effect. [na Rússia] and not a negative effect on ourselves”.

When missiles hit the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Sunday, hitting an apartment building and a kindergarten, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the G7 must respond with more weapons and tougher sanctions on Russia.

Biden called the strikes acts of “barbarism”.

unit message

The summit takes place against an even grimmer backdrop than last year, when the leaders of the G7 countries – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – met for the first time since the start of the summit. Covid-19 pandemic .

When the delegates arrived at Schloss Elmau, a castle at the foot of the Wetterstein Mountains, they were greeted with flowers while the Bavarian mountain marines stood at attention to the sun.

Leaders are expected to discuss options to combat rising energy prices and replace Russian oil and gas imports. They also want to avoid sanctions that could fuel inflation and exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis affecting their own populations.

Rising global energy and food prices are taking a toll on economic growth after the conflict in Ukraine, with the United Nations warning of an “unprecedented global hunger crisis”.

At climate changes one China assertiveness and the rise of authoritarianism must also be on the agenda.

The summit provides an opportunity for Scholz to demonstrate more assertive leadership in the Ukraine crisis.

Scholz promised a revolution in German foreign and defense policy after the invasion of Russia in February, promising to bolster the military and send weapons to Ukraine. But critics have since accused him of dragging his feet and sending mixed messages.

This year, Scholz invited Senegal, Argentina, Indonesia, India and South Africa as partner nations at the summit.

Many countries in the global south are concerned about collateral damage from Western sanctions.

An EU official said the G7 countries would impress partner countries that the food price spikes that hit them were a result of Russia’s actions and that there were no food sanctions. It was also a mistake to think of the war in Ukraine as a local affair.

“It’s more than that. It is questioning the order, the post-World War II order,” the official said.

Biden praises German prime minister

Biden also thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday for his leadership in the Ukraine crisis during a meeting of the two at a retreat in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday ahead of the G7 summit.

Critics, including Ukraine and its Western allies, accused Germany of dragging its feet in its support of the country, a charge Scholz has denied.

The US president, fresh out of the mass administered to him at Schloss Elmau by a US Army chaplain, told Scholz that his leadership was crucial in organizing Europe’s response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. .

“I want to congratulate you on standing out like you did when you became chancellor,” Biden told a beaming Scholz. “Putin is counting on this from the start, that somehow NATO and the G7 would split, but we didn’t and it’s not going to happen,” he said.

Biden publicly praised Germany for agreeing to increase its military spending with a €100 billion special fund and overcoming resistance born of its troubled Nazi past to supply Ukraine with weapons.

But Scholz has been criticized at home and in Eastern Europe for a supposed hesitation about what kind of weapons Europe’s richest country should send to Kyiv in its fight against Russian forces in the east. Scholz has always rejected these criticisms.

“It’s a good message that we’ve all managed to stay together, which of course Putin never expected,” Scholz said, before he and Biden moved into an open-air conference room where they held bilateral talks with a handful of close aides. .

Scholz said the summit’s main aim is to send the message that Western sanctions on Russia are not to blame for the spiraling food prices that are causing growing hunger in the Global South.

The short exchange between Scholz and Biden captured on camera was humorous.

“It’s beautiful,” Biden said, admiring the Bavarian mountains. “I used to ski too, but I haven’t skied in a while.”