WASHINGTON: Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven major democracies met in Washington on Friday and agreed on a framework to provide loans worth 50 billion dollars to Ukraine.
The loans will be repaid with interest earned on Russian assets frozen as part of economic sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The details of the financial aid framework will be announced shortly by Italy, which holds the G-7 presidency this year. The G-7 plans to provide the loans for three years from December.
Under the framework, the Japan International Cooperation Agency is expected to provide yen loans totaling about 500 billion yen through a World Bank fund in a way that prevents the funds from being used for military purposes.
The United States has already announced its contribution of 20 billion dollars, and Britain and Canada have pledged 2.26 billion pounds and 5 billion Canadian dollars, respectively. In the European Union, the European Parliament has approved a plan to provide up to 35 billion euros.
Following the agreement, which was based on a broad accord reached at a G-7 summit in June, the leaders of the G-7 countries released a statement saying that the G-7 “remains steadfast in its solidarity to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom.”
The agreement was “very significant in that the G-7 united and showed their absolute commitment to support Ukraine,” Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters after the meeting.
At the meeting, the G-7 officials also discussed the economic impact of artificial intelligence, as well as international taxation on large information technology companies and others.
They issued a joint statement expressing concern about increased downside economic risks as the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated in recent months.
JIJI Press