G7 leaders meet in Italy to try to find an agreement on the use of frozen Russian assets

G7 leaders meet from Thursday June 13 in Puglia, in the south ofItaly. Under the Italian presidency, the “Group of 7”, made up of the United States, Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, will try to agree on a mechanism allowing the use of frozen Russian assets to provide Ukraine with budgetary support and help it rebuild the country.

Faced with the specter of a return to the White House of Donald Trump and the uncertainty surrounding the consequences of his election for Ukraine, the G7 wants to secure the financing of its military aid to kyiv. The countries of the European Union adopted an agreement at the beginning of May to seize income from Russia’s frozen assets in order to arm Ukraine, a windfall representing between 2.5 and 3 billion euros per year.

The United States, however, wants to go further and has put pressure on the G7 countries to rally around a mega-loan of around $50 billion (46 million euros) guaranteed by future interest generated by the assets. Russians immobilized. But many questions remain, including who would issue the debt and what would happen if the assets were released in the event of a peace deal.

The G7 intends to announce a “frame”, as well as a timetable, the details of which will have to be finalized later, according to Jake Sullivan, the American national security adviser. American President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, will also sign a bilateral security agreement in Italy on Thursday.