Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 major economies showed the deep rift among members over Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting Wednesday as multiple finance ministers and central bank governors walked out when Russia began to speak, a source close to the matter said.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Ukraine’s finance minister were among those who exited the G-20 meeting. Some finance ministers and central bank governors who were attending online turned off their cameras when Russian officials spoke, the source said.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov joined the gathering virtually and a senior Russian finance ministry official was at the meeting, while some Western nations have urged that Russia be removed from the G-20 as a consequence of its military aggression.
Photo taken April 10, 2022, shows a view of Kyiv from a high point after Russian troops completed their withdrawal from around the Ukrainian capital. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
The G-20 finance chiefs, whose nations represent 80 percent of the world’s gross domestic product, have a host of issues on the agenda in their first ministerial-level meeting since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine in late February, including the response to the coronavirus pandemic and rising food and energy prices.
Surging raw material costs and energy prices have already taken a heavy toll on the global economy, with the International Monetary Fund projecting this year’s global economic growth to be 3.6 percent in its latest World Economic Outlook report, down 0.8 percentage point from its January forecast.
The tightening of U.S. monetary policy, which began in March as a response to inflation that has been increasing at its fastest rate in more than 40 years, also puts emerging economies’ currencies at risk of weakening and thus causes their foreign debt burden to increase.
The Group of Seven industrialized nations have imposed a slew of sanctions to isolate Russia from the global financial system such as by freezing the assets of President Vladimir Putin and the Russian central bank as well as excluding some major lenders from a key international payment network.
In contrast, Brazil, India, China and South Africa, which along with Russia form the BRICS forum, have continued to support Moscow’s participation in the G-20 framework.
The meeting of the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors is taking place on the sidelines of the weeklong spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in the U.S. capital through Sunday.
Just ahead of the G-20 meeting, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva called for cooperation in the major economies amid tensions among members over Russia’s war in Ukraine, while acknowledging it is a “difficult moment.”
The G-20 chiefs are unlikely to issue a joint statement due to the potential division over Russia and instead may have Indonesia, this year’s rotating chair of the group, release the results of the discussions at the meeting, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The G-20 groups Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Separately, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki is planning to hold a bilateral meeting with Yellen amid a rapid depreciation of the yen, which tumbled to a fresh 20-year low in the 129 zone against the U.S. dollar Wednesday morning in Tokyo.
The yen has fallen due to the divergent monetary policies pursued by the Bank of Japan and U.S. Federal Reserve, which has started tightening its monetary grip to curb inflation. The BOJ has maintained its powerful monetary easing.
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