The surprise presence of the Russian Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov, at the working session of the G20 ‘Finance’ meeting on Monday 31 August in Asheville, United States, was badly received by Europeans.
“I personally had and have problems with discussing topics like global imbalances with a representative of an aggressor country carrying out brutal daily attacks against civilians”, said the European Commissioner for Economy, Valdis Dombrovskis, on Tuesday 1 September. “It is a question of respect for the victims”, he added.
The previous day, the German minister, Lars Klingbeil, had described this initiative by the US G20 Presidency as “something I find irritating” because, in his view, the United States should clearly have indicated that the Russian minister was not being received as an ordinary guest.
Present at the G20 even though his country is not officially a member, the Polish minister, Andrzej Domański, rejected “any sign of normalisation” with Russia, calling instead for more sanctions against the Kremlin for its armed aggression against Ukraine.
Mr Dombrovskis also urged his counterparts from third countries to provide greater financial support to Ukraine. The EU, which is to provide Kyiv with a €90 billion loan in 2026 and 2027, wants its partners to assume one third of the overall budgetary burden, i.e. around €50 billion per year.
Regarding the items on the G20 ‘Finance’ agenda, the French minister, Roland Lescure, whose country holds the annual G7 presidency, called for “more multilateralism and cooperation” among the world’s main economies in order to tackle global macroeconomic imbalances. The EU, the United States and China must each do “their share of the work”, he said, expressing the hope that a communiqué would be adopted at the end of the meeting.
The United States, which has excluded South Africa from the G20 discussions, is putting pressure on its allies to adopt new sanctions against Iran in order to force the Gulf country to yield. The previous day, the Commission had said it was ready to do so, if necessary (see EUROPE 13927/1).
“We can discuss with the Americans what they have in mind”, Mr Lescure said, noting that Europe has already shown itself to be “firm” on this issue. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)