US President Joe Biden wants the G7 countries to make progress on implementing plans to use frozen Russian sovereign assets for the benefit of Ukraine before the leadersʼ meeting in June 2024.
Bloomberg writes about this with reference to sources.
G7 officials are discussing options for using $280 billion in frozen Russian Central Bank assets, including using the money as collateral to raise debt or issue guarantees.
According to the publicationʼs interlocutors, Biden privately told his allies that if Ukraine loses, the international order will be turned upside down for at least the next five decades.
All allies agree that these funds should remain closed to Russia unless it promises to help rebuild Ukraine, but they differ on whether their full seizure would be legal.
Biden would like the frozen assets to be used to finance the needs of Ukraineʼs budget, and therefore to restore Ukraine, sources say. The US president does not believe that the use of frozen funds will replace the need for aid, one of the interlocutors said.
- France and Germany, as well as the European Central Bank, have so far resisted any option that would lead to confiscation of the funds. They are worried that Russia might respond. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said this week that the G7 should work together to explore the possibility of seizing the assets themselves or using them as collateral to borrow on global markets. According to one of the sources, Great Britain and Canada are also in favor of confiscation of assets. One of the problems is that the vast majority of funds are in Europe, particularly in the Belgian clearing house Euroclear, and any deal would require the support of all the G7 countries. Another challenge is to find an option that all allies will find legally sound and that will help reduce any risks to the euro.