G20 finance ministers and central bank heads gathered in Asheville, North Carolina for two days of talks. The session is being overshadowed by dissatisfaction over the White House welcoming Russia to the meeting but not some critical reporters, the war with Iran and its economic fallout, and Donald Trump's latest trade dispute with Canada. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov made an unexpected appearance as talks opened late on Monday.
He held a bilateral meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. "We like getting along with everybody," Trump told reporters when asked about the first in-person Russian invite since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The US currently holds the rotating G20 presidency and so is hosting the session.
The US government told several news agencies on condition of anonymity that Bessent used the meeting to tell Siluanov that the US would not give Russia economic relief until it brings its four-and-a-half-year invasion to a close. "Receiving the Russian finance minsiter here sends a troubling signal," German Finance Minsiter Lars Klingbeil said. He said he and his European colleagues made clear that they would not appear in the traditional "family photo" alongside the Russian media, saying this was a common EU position.
The photo was ultimately taken without Siluanov and away from the media. Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski told the news agency that he recognized the right of the G20 hosts to invite guests, but that he was unhappy to see Moscow represented. They lie constantly and you need to be really, really cautious while discussing with them," he said.
"So for me it would be very difficult to have any kind of conversation with Russia." As leaders gathered in Asheville, three giants of the US media landscape complained of either no or limited access toe the meeting. The business-focused Bloomberg News said that its team was not allowed access, while the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times both complained that certain journalists who would typically cover such events were refused media credentials. Following a challenge from the DJV German journalists' union on Monday, Klingbeil was critical on the matter.
"I believe the press has a completely legitimate interest in reporting openly and freely on this G20 summit," he said. "I consider it unacceptable for journalists or entire editorial teams to be excluded." Klingbeil had also said in a German political podcast last week that he would bring a simple message to the US regarding what he called Donald Trump's "irresponsible" war in Iran — that it needed to come to an end. Host Bessent, however, was trying to drum up support among allies for the US plans for what it calls "Operation Economic Outcast," an intensified sanction regime against Iran reliant in no small part on third parties outside the US who still do business with Tehran.
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