“British Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans to urge US President Joe Biden to provide funds for a $20 billion loan to Ukraine as part of a larger Group of Seven loan before Donald Trump takes office.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: “European Truth”, The Telegraph.
Details: The British prime minister is pushing for one-on-one talks with Biden, the outgoing US president, when they both attend the G20 summit in Brazil next week.
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One of the focuses of London’s lobbying is that the G7 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the USA – fulfill their promises to provide new loans to Ukraine.
Back in June, G7 world leaders agreed to allocate $50 billion to Kyiv, which will be partially financed by interest earned on Russian assets immobilized after a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The US has promised to provide $20 billion of the $50 billion, but these funds have not yet been provided. Last month, the US authorities announced that the money was being prepared for allocation this year.
One of the insiders of the British government, close to the political discussions, said that Britain is ready to “hold Biden’s hand and foot” regarding the fulfillment of the promise.
Starmer’s talks at the G20 summit have not yet been agreed or announced, but Downing Street and Foreign Office officials expect a bilateral meeting with Biden to be agreed.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is expected to press the same argument for the loan pledge at the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Rome later this month.
Starmer is also expected to say Ukraine should finally get permission to launch long-range Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russia, something Biden opposes.
Earlier it became known that the European Commission is considering the possibility of allowing the Belgian depository Euroclear to directly use frozen Russian assets to protect a $50 billion loan to Ukraine from retaliatory actions by Russia.
In October, the G7 finalized the parameters for providing a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, which was agreed upon in June at a summit in Italy.
The amount of Britain’s contribution will be 2.26 billion pounds, or 2.94 billion US dollars.