JAKARTA - Top finance officials from the United States, Britain, and Canada decided to walk out of Wednesday's G20 meeting, Britain's Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said, as Russian representatives spoke.
Ukrainian officials who attended the meeting in Washington, DC, the United States also walked out of a meeting of top finance officials from the world's 20 largest economies, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
"Earlier my representatives, along with their US & Canadian counterparts left today's G20 meeting in Washington while the Russian delegation was speaking," Sunak said on Twitter.
"We are united in our condemnation of Russia's war against Ukraine and will push for stronger international coordination to punish Russia," he continued.
Russia's Deputy Finance Minister Timur Maksimov attended the meeting in person, while Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and the governor of Russia's central bank joined virtually, a second source said.
Russia's finance ministry did not mention the strike in a statement issued after the meeting. He quoted Siluanov as asking the G20 not to politicize dialogue between members, stressing the alliance has always focused on the economy.
He also complained about the damaging effects of Western sanctions, the statement said.
"Another aspect of the current crisis is undermining confidence in the existing international monetary and financial system. The security of international reserves and the possibility of free trade and financial transactions are no longer guaranteed," the statement said.
Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Russia was to blame for slowing global growth, high inflation, and supply chain problems. "Russia must be isolated," he told reporters.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the audience she strongly disagreed with the presence of a senior Russian official at the meeting, two sources told Reuters.
One source added, Yellen told participants that there was "no business as usual" for Russia in the global economy, echoing her message to Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, of whom Indonesia is currently the G20 Presidency.
Yellen was joined in her strike by Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Separately, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde urged Maksimov to deliver a clear message to Moscow to end the war in Ukraine, one of the sources said.
The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors met on the sidelines of a semi-annual conference held by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington, with the main topics being the Ukraine war, food security, and the ongoing recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Minister Yellen plans to boycott the two G20 sessions on the architecture of international finance and sustainable finance, one of the sources said, although Treasury officials said she would join discussions on the impact of the Ukraine war on the global economy.
Financial leaders from a number of European countries plan to follow suit in protest at the Russian invasion.
SEE ALSO:
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva acknowledged it was a 'difficult moment' for the G20, a forum that has played a key role in coordinating the fight against COVID-19 and responding to the 2008-2009 financial crisis. However, he insisted that cooperation through the forum would continue.
"Obviously there are very, very troubling facts that we have to deal with. But we also recognize how interdependent we are. And it's very clear that cooperation must and will continue."
Both Georgieva and Yellen have warned against the fragmentation of the global economy into geopolitical blocs, with the United States and market-driven democracies on the one hand and China, Russia and other state-based economies on the other.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
