From the left: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, Canada's Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde attend the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' Meeting in Stresa, Italy on May 24.Massimo Pinca/Reuters
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says she’s optimistic that talks under way in Italy among G7 finance ministers will ultimately lead to a deal on how revenues from frozen Russian assets can be used to help Ukraine.
Ms. Freeland, who is also Canada’s Finance Minister, spoke with reporters Friday by phone from Stresa, Italy, where meetings of G7 finance ministers and central bankers are taking place ahead of the G7 leaders summit scheduled for mid-June.
“Canada’s firm position has always been that Russia, the aggressor, must pay for the destruction it has caused,” Ms. Freeland said. “I am optimistic that we are going to reach a deal.”
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022, Western countries froze some US$300-billion of the Bank of Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves.
Reports suggest the talks are focused on using the interest from the frozen assets rather than the assets themselves.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says putting those assets to use will be a key topic of conversation at the G7 meetings as leaders look for ways to support Ukraine.
“I’ve not seen anything I regard as a show stopper, but there are some issues that need to be sorted out and people will have to be flexible to reach common ground,” Ms. Yellen told Reuters on Friday.
Ms. Freeland said the discussions are gaining momentum in Italy, which pick up from talks last month in Washington during meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
“We’re not there yet. But I am really optimistic that we’ll get there,” she said. “There is an imperative to act with urgency and to get money to Ukraine as quickly as possible.”
She said Canada has already taken the legal steps to act within its own jurisdiction, but the vast majority of the seized Russian assets are in Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree this week that outlined potential retaliatory measures in response to any seizure of frozen Russian assets.
“Part of what we’ve been doing with the Europeans is work to develop a mechanism where the risk and the burden is equitably shared among all the allies, given some very different starting positions,” Ms. Freeland said. “One of the things that Canada is bringing to the table to this meeting is saying, as we’re developing the final scheme, Canada is prepared to be one of the countries that steps up to directly provide financing to Ukraine, backed by the future profit from the assets.”
She said other topics on the agenda at the G7 meetings include efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and proposals for an international deal on tax reform.
With reports from Reuters