WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden headed to Italy Wednesday for a summit of the world’s leading democracies with the urgency to get big things done, including turning frozen Russian assets into billions of dollars to help Ukraine fight Russian President Vladimir Putin. war machine.
This year’s Group of Seven summit comes three years after Biden declared at his first such meeting that America was back as a world leader after the disruptions to Western alliances that occurred when Donald Trump was president. Now there is a chance that this meeting could be the last G7 for Biden and other G7 leaders, depending on the election results this year.
Biden and his counterparts from Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan will use the summit to discuss, among other things, challenges related to the spread of artificial intelligence, migration, the revival of the Russian military and economic power of China. Pope Francis, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will take part in the meeting at the Borgo Egnazia resort in the Puglia region of southern Italy.
The summit, which kicks off on Thursday, will come after far-right parties across the continent made surprising gains in the just-concluded European Union elections. These victories, combined with upcoming elections in the United Kingdom, France and the United States, have roiled the global political establishment and added weight to this year’s summit.
“You hear this a lot when you talk to U.S. and European officials: If we can’t get this done now, whether it’s on China or on the assets, we may not have a second chance,” said Josh Lipsky, senior director . from the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, an international affairs think tank. “We don’t know what the world will look like in three, six or nine months.”
The G7 is an informal bloc of industrialized democracies that meets annually to discuss shared issues and concerns. Biden will arrive in Italy on Wednesday evening, his second trip outside the US in as many weeks. The Democratic president was in France last week for a state visit in Paris and ceremonies in Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in World War II.
While last week’s visit had a celebratory atmosphere, it will be dominated by pressing global issues, including how financial aid can continue to flow to Ukraine in the fight against the Russian invasion. Biden’s trip also comes a day after his son Hunter was convicted on federal gun charges, a blow that is sure to weigh heavily on the president’s mind.
Despite pressing global challenges, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said there is still a sense of relief among world leaders in 2024 that “America was back,” referring to Biden’s 2021 speech at the G7 in Cornwall , England.
“Biden’s message then was that democracies must step up and show that they can deliver results for their people,” Kirby said. “That applies now more than ever.”
Kirby said the U.S. is willing to work with democratically elected officials in the EU regardless of who they are, although some of the high-ranking officials have expressed far less support for Ukraine than current leaders.
“We are confident that, regardless of who occupies the seats in the European Parliament, we will continue to work closely with our EU partners on all issues relating to our shared interests on the European continent,” said Kirby . includes supporting Ukraine.”
Biden and Zelenskyy, who met in Paris last week, will meet again on Thursday on the sidelines of the summit to discuss continued support for the Eastern European nation as it tries to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern parts of the country keep out. They are expected to hold a joint press conference. Biden is also expected to meet with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Pope and other leaders.
Biden, who has remained adamant that “we will not walk away” from Ukraine, publicly apologized to Zelenskyy last week for Congress’ months-long delay in approving additional U.S. military aid. The delay allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield.
Biden’s back-to-back trips to France and Italy represent a rare double diplomacy in the middle of the presidential election. The president is skipping a peace conference in Switzerland in Ukraine this weekend to fly to Los Angeles for a campaign fundraiser with big Hollywood names. Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the US at the conference.
Despite the delays in military aid, the Biden administration announced Tuesday that it would send Ukraine a new Patriot missile system to help fend off Russian attacks, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press. Biden approved the move, officials told the AP, as Kiev has desperately called for more air defenses as it battles an intense Russian attack on the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Kirby said the US would use the G7 summit to announce new sanctions and export control measures targeting those who helped Russia get what it needs for the war. He said the new measures would make it more difficult for financiers to support Russia’s defense mechanism.
Ukraine and many of its supporters have called for the confiscation of $260 billion in Russian assets frozen outside the country after the February 24, 2022 invasion. But European officials have resisted, citing concerns about legal and financial stability. Most frozen assets are located in Europe.
A European plan to just tap into the interest on Russia’s funds would generate only a trickle of money each year – about $2.5 billion to $3 billion at current interest rates, which would barely meet one month’s financing needs for the Ukrainian government.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently said that G7 finance ministers discussed the possibility of extending a loan to Ukraine and using the windfall profits from assets seized in Europe to pay it off.
Kirby said the US was optimistic the group could reach agreement on the issue.
Biden is also expected to discuss economic concerns caused by Chinese manufacturing overcapacity, how artificial intelligence can be used in a way that maximizes benefits yet manages national security risks, and global migration.
The US and other G7 countries are struggling to manage the large influx of migrants arriving for complicated reasons including war, climate change and drought. Migration, and the way countries deal with the growing numbers at their borders, has been a factor driving the rise of the far right in part of Europe.
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Superville reported from Bari, Italy.
