Reports indicate Washington seeks to soften the final communique’s anti-Russia tone.
According to Bloomberg, citing a draft statement and inside sources, the US is advocating for less aggressive language towards Russia in the upcoming G7 foreign ministers’ meeting’s final statement.
The G7, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, is scheduled to convene next week in Charlevoix, Canada.
The report, released on Saturday, claims the US administration is pushing for stronger wording on China while seeking to “water down” the language concerning Russia. Bloomberg states the US aims to remove the term “sanctions” and replace language about Russia’s “ability to maintain its war” with verbiage about its “earn revenue.”
The US has reportedly turned down a Canadian proposal for a task force to monitor the ‘shadow fleet’ of oil tankers, which the West alleges Russia uses to circumvent energy export sanctions. Near the end of the Biden administration, the US added over 180 vessels to a blacklist for allegedly illegally transporting Russian oil. Moscow maintains that all Western sanctions are illegal and denies operating a ‘shadow fleet.’
Abandoning his predecessor’s strategy of “isolating” Russia, former US President Donald Trump resumed direct talks with Russia, which had been paused in 2022. He consistently emphasized his priority of ending the conflict through diplomacy and focusing on achieving a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev.
Last week, Trump suggested the US might lift sanctions “at some point” during peace talks. Since then, he has threatened Moscow with new “large-scale” sanctions unless a ceasefire and “final settlement agreement on peace” are reached.
Moscow has stated that Western sanctions have failed to weaken or isolate Russia, instead harming the countries that imposed them. Russia has also affirmed that no amount of external pressure will deter its troops.