(Savelletri Di Fasano) Canada is ready to contribute $5 billion to the loan to Ukraine that will be based on future revenues from frozen and seized Russian assets, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.
The leaders of the G7 countries, meeting in Puglia, Italy, agreed to grant a loan of 50 billion to help Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invader. This loan would use as collateral the interest earned on profits generated by the freezing of Russian central bank assets.
This highly anticipated decision in Kyiv came on the first day of this G7 Summit in Italy. The three-day summit is an opportunity for collaboration between leaders of wealthy democracies – France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Japan.
Canada has been closely involved in efforts led by the United States to use the frozen assets of the Russian central bank to help Ukraine, which the federal government was keen to highlight during this summit.
The G7 announced the freezing of the assets of the Russian central bank in 2022, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s troops.
During a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, Mr. Trudeau congratulated the G7 on this announcement.
“Canada is actually the first country to announce that 5 billion [of the 50 billion] will come from the Canadian contribution,” he said. President Zelensky thanked Mr. Trudeau for his “strong voice” in support of Ukraine.
A government source not authorized to discuss the matter publicly said Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland called her G7 counterparts last month to seek support for a deal to use frozen Russian assets to provide more financial aid to Ukraine.
As leaders of the G7 nations announced increased support on Thursday, Canada joined the United States and the United Kingdom in issuing a stark warning about Russian interference in Ukraine’s neighbor Moldova.
The three G7 countries argued in a joint statement that “Russian actors are conducting a plot to influence the results of the fall 2024 presidential elections in [Moldova].”
“They intend to provoke protests in [Moldova] if a pro-Russian candidate does not win,” the statement read.
The three countries maintain that they have full confidence in Moldova’s ability to manage threats and assure that they are taking measures to support these efforts.
“By revealing the Kremlin’s plot, we are making clear to Moscow that we support free and fair elections and will not tolerate its attempts to interfere and undermine democratic processes. »
In this context, US President Joe Biden and his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky signed a new agreement on Thursday on the sidelines of the summit aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s defenses in the long term.
Canada also announced sanctions against 11 individuals and 16 entities linked to Russia’s “military-industrial complex,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. This includes entities involved in circumventing sanctions against Russian oil.
Mr. Trudeau also met in Italy with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron on the first day of the G7 Summit.
Other issues on the agenda include the war between Israel and Hamas, China’s industrial policy and partnership with Africa.
After recent European parliamentary elections that boosted support for far-right political parties, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni appeared to kick off the summit by presenting herself as one of the most stable of the group.
Asked about the change, President Macron told an Italian journalist on the sidelines of the summit: “I regret it.” He added that France had enshrined a woman’s right to abortion in its Constitution and that the country defended “this vision of equality between women and men.”
Prime Minister Trudeau’s personal representative for the G7 Summit, Cindy Termorshuizen, would not say Thursday whether abortion would be mentioned in the final communiqué. “You will see in tomorrow’s release that there is very strong gender equality language on LGBTQ issues,” she said.
After the G7 Summit, Mr. Trudeau will travel to Switzerland on Saturday to participate in the Ukraine Peace Summit. “I’m going to be with the president [Zelensky] this weekend in Switzerland to talk about the children who have been kidnapped by Russia,” Mr. Trudeau said Thursday.
“This is one of the war crimes that Vladimir Putin is committing. We will certainly continue to defend the Ukrainian cause and the rule of law throughout the world. »