German minister says 'work to do' on frozen Russian assets for Kiev

Stresa (Italy), May 25 (IANS/DPA) The Group of Seven (G7) industrialised democracies still have “a lot of work to do” on using interest generated from frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Saturday.

“We are prepared to take further and smarter entrepreneurial approaches to financing,” Lindner said at a meeting of G7 finance ministers in northern Italy,

However, the “risks for taxpayers must be minimized and ruled out,” he added.

EU member states previously decided to use interest from the €210 billion ($227 billion) in assets of the Russian central bank that are frozen inside the bloc to finance military aid for Ukraine.

The United States considers this approach to be too hesitant and instead wants the G7 to give Ukraine a large loan secured by the interest income. This loan could be for $50 billion — significantly more than the €3 billion envisaged by the European Union.

Intensive talks on the details are set to take place in the coming weeks. The aim is reportedly to reach an agreement at the summit of G7 heads of state and government in mid-June in the southern Italian region of Apulia.

–IANS/DPA

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