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New Delhi, June 27
The Group of Seven (G7) meeting at Germany on Monday said it was ready to expand assistance to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and separately resolved to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian supplied natural gas.
A statement of the G7 said it has been united in holding Russia to account for its unprovoked war against Ukraine and made it clear that there was no going back on sanctions imposed on Russia.
A US and European Commission statement detailed out how the G7 spoke about reducing Europe’s energy dependency on Russia. A joint Statement by US President Joe Biden and EC President Ursala von der Leyen on European Energy Security said, “We are working together to find ways to further reduce Russia’s energy-derived revenues in the coming months to further curtail its ability to fund an unprovoked war in Ukraine.”
“We are partnering to diversify energy supplies to Europe,” they said. Russia has cut supplies of natural gas to several EU Member states. Since March, global LNG exports to Europe have risen by 75 percent compared to 2021, while LNG exports from US to Europe have nearly tripled, the White House said.
On standing with Ukraine, the G7 made it clear that it was ready to further strengthen Ukraine’s resilience by expanding cooperation in intelligence and information sharing, information security, as well as maritime security.
“We will continue supporting Ukraine in defending its networks against cyber incidents and expand our cooperation in the fields of energy security, the safety and security of nuclear material and facilities, environmental, and water use issues,” the statement said.
On sanctions on Russia, the G7 said these have imposed severe and enduring costs on Russia to help bring an end to this war. “Russia cannot remain a member in good standing of the global economic and political system as long as it flagrantly violates the international norms at the cost of others,” the G7 statement said.
“To severely impair Russia’s ability to finance this war, its military-industrial complex has been sapped of critical components, its economy has contracted, its central bank’s foreign reserves have been largely immobilised, and the kleptocracy is being held to account for its ill-gotten gains,” The G7 statement said.
Measures to protect access to basic humanitarian needs, including through clarifying guidance, licenses and general exceptions where necessary, to ensure that these measures do not hinder the availability of food, agricultural goods, medicines, and humanitarian assistance, as well as the availability of diverse and reliable information sources.
The G7 said it condemned Russia’s unjustified use of nuclear rhetoric and signaling and expressed serious concern after the announcement by Russia that it could transfer missiles with nuclear capabilities to Belarus.
Besides the host Germany, other members of the G7 are the US, the UK, France, Japan, Italy and the European Union.