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U.S. Says G-7 Is Converging on Warning to Putin Over Ukraine

Discussions at a G-7 meeting have been in line with President Joe Biden’s public stance toward the threat of a Russian invasion.

U.S. Says G-7 Is Converging on Warning to Putin Over Ukraine
U.S. President Joe Biden, left, places his hand on U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's back during their bilateral meeting in Carbis Bay, U.K. (Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg)

Group of Seven governments are converging around a warning to Russia that President Vladimir Putin will face severe costs if he sends troops into Ukraine, a senior U.S. official said Saturday.

Discussions at a weekend meeting of G-7 foreign ministers in Liverpool, England, have been in line with President Joe Biden’s public stance toward the threat of a Russian invasion. While the administration hasn’t publicly laid out the potential costs to Russia, they would be implemented very quickly if necessary, according to the State Department official, who discussed the closed-door talks on condition of anonymity.

Russia’s deployment of troops and military equipment on Ukraine’s border have pushed revived fears of war to the top of the G-7’s agenda. U.S. intelligence has suggested the Kremlin has prepared a plan for an offensive against Ukraine as soon as early 2022 with as many as 175,000 personnel. 

President Joe Biden later Saturday warned Russia of “devastating” economic penalties if it attacks Ukraine and said more U.S. and NATO troops would be sent to defend allies.

The U.S. official expressed confidence that a broad group of countries, including other G-7 nations, would join in imposing costs if Russia attacks Ukraine. Russia has denied it plans to invade.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who met on the margins of the G-7 conference, renewed their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and called on Russia to “reduce tensions and return to diplomacy,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

G-7 members agree that changing European borders by force would have “enormous political and economic consequences,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in comments broadcast on ARD television.

China Challenge  

Ministers also discussed China’s challenge to western democracies, including what the official described as predatory trade practices toward Europe. To the extent that China has antagonized European countries, it’s a result of its own behavior, the official said. 

The G-7 talks are being hosted by the U.K., whose Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has billed the meetings as a show of strength from democracies against “aggressors who seek to undermine liberty.”  

Iran was a topic as the Biden administration suggests that time for the U.S. to return to the Iranian nuclear deal with world powers is running short. A State Department spokesperson said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held productive meetings with counterparts from Germany, France, and the U.K. to discuss a way forward on the Iran nuclear deal.

Still, Baerbock told reporters at the G-7 that there was “no progress” on nuclear talks with Iran and stressed that time was running out, Reuters reported. 

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.