Sao Paulo (AFP) – G20 finance ministers will meet in Brazil on Wednesday to explore ways to shore up the global economy, whose nascent recovery is threatened by a number of conflicts and crises, including wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
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The war in Ukraine is likely to take center stage at the meeting, with G7 countries on the sidelines to discuss stepping up Western support against Russian aggression. That includes Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's “urgent” proposal to use frozen Russian assets to mobilize Russian military power. Increase aid to Kiev.
Yellen, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, International Monetary Fund Director Kristalina Georgieva and other key economic policymakers will gather in Sao Paulo for a two-day meeting that will see the UK, China, India and Russia There may also be notable absentees, such as: organizers told AFP.
Organizers say the host, Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Addad, will speak via video conference after contracting the coronavirus.
Economic risks posed by the cost of living crisis, climate change and conflict in the Middle East will also be on the agenda when finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 (G20) meet for the first time this year.
Brazil, which took over the rotating G20 presidency from India in December, will also use the two-day meeting to push for progress in the fight against poverty, reduce the crushing debt burden of low-income countries and give developing countries a voice. We want to put pressure on the government to increase the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
International taxation is also on the agenda as the world debates how to deal with the so-called “race to the bottom” in which some countries lure corporations and the ultra-wealthy with ultra-low tax rates.
The meeting, which follows last week's foreign ministers' meeting in Rio de Janeiro, will begin laying the foundations for economic policy ahead of the annual G20 summit in Rio in November.
“There are many issues on the agenda, and we face challenges on all of them,” said Tatiana Rosito, the Brazilian government official coordinating the G20 finance meeting.
“Our aim is to seek agreement and put forward issues for dialogue,” she told AFP. “What we are doing is setting the tone for dialogue and aiming to build progress together.”
G7 targets Russian assets
Finance ministers from the group of seven countries – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the European Union – will hold another meeting on Wednesday to reaffirm Western support for desperate Ukraine. Ask for more help to defeat Russia.
The G7 appears close to announcing plans to co-create a fund for Ukraine using profits from an estimated $397 billion in Russian assets frozen by Western countries over the Moscow invasion.
Ukraine has warned that it desperately needs more military and financial aid after a new $60 billion aid package from the United States stalls in Congress.
Momentum appears to be building for a Western plan to exploit Russia's frozen assets. Ms Yellen touted the idea, with Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland saying she agreed “100 per cent” and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling for interest to be seized from assets first, then foreclosures. . the asset itself.
Founded in 1999, the G20 accounts for more than 80% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP), three-quarters of world trade, and two-thirds of the world's population.
In fact, it includes 19 of the world's largest economies, both developed and emerging, as well as the European Union and the 21-member African Union, which joined for the first time this year.
© 2024 AFP
