G7 intends to warn China’s banks over Russia ties

G7 wants to send Chinese banks a "stern warning" about the consequences of helping the Russian Federation circumvent sanctions for its aggression against Ukraine.

Rubryka reports this with reference to Reuters.

According to Reuters, G7 leaders at the June 13-15 summit in Italy are expected to focus their closed-door meetings on the threat posed by growing Sino-Russian trade to the war in Ukraine and what to do about it.

According to an unnamed U.S. official involved in planning the summit and another source familiar with the matter, the talks are likely to result in public statements about smaller Chinese banks.

However, according to Reuters, the G7 countries will not take any immediate punitive measures (such as blocking access to SWIFT) against any Chinese banks at the summit.

In addition, the G7 leaders will focus specifically on small financial institutions rather than on China's largest banks.

Negotiations over the exact format and content of the warning are still ongoing, unnamed sources told Reuters.

G7 leaders' plans to discuss this topic at a summit in Italy have not been publicly announced before.

Cooperation between China and Russia

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, China has taken an allegedly neutral position. It did not officially condemn Moscow but declared that it supports the sovereignty of Ukraine.

At the same time, Beijing continues to trade with Moscow, and Chinese companies sell some weapons to Russia.

Earlier, a cargo ship of the Russian Federation, which supplies Russia with weapons from North Korea, was also spotted in China. The Russian ship "Angara," since August 2023, has moved thousands of containers to Russian ports, probably with North Korean ammunition.

Last December, the US president issued a decree to strengthen sanctions against foreign banks that help Russia. This affected the cooperation of Chinese banks with the Russian Federation.

As Bloomberg reported, Russian companies now use cryptocurrency and barter for trade with China.