Russia And Middle East In Focus At G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting 2/2

[Cont.] G7 finance ministers and Central Bank Managers noted in a statement yesterday: “…significant geopolitical risks to the [global economic] outlook, primarily from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East, could affect trade, supply chains, and commodity prices.”

• Statement said the G7, “will continue working on all possible avenues by which immobilized Russian sovereign assets could be made use of to support Ukraine,” with a view to presenting a plan at the Leaders’ Summit.
• US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said yesterday the G7 is, "working towards unlocking value of Russian sovereign assets to aid Ukraine," describing discussions as a "work in progress."
• Included in the US National Security supplemental package is legislation which would empower the President to seize Russian sovereign assets frozen in the US. Separately, the European Commission has advanced a proposal to aid Ukraine with profits generated from the frozen assets.
• However, any materially significant seizure of the assets themselves would require the buy-in of the EC and EU member states, where the vast majority of the €260bn of assets are frozen, any statement from Germany and Italy today, either in Italy or Washington, hinting they could approve the measure would be meaningful.
• ECB President Christine Lagarde said in Washington yesterday: “Moving from freezing the assets, to confiscating them, to disposing of them is something that needs to be looked at very carefully,” warning it could violate, “the international order that you want to protect; that you would want Russia to respect.”