SCHLOSS ELMAU, Germany, June 26 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday told his allies “we must stick together” against Russia as G7 leaders gathered for a summit dominated by the war in Ukraine and its impact on food and energy supply and the global economy.

At the start of the meeting in the Bavarian Alps, four of the wealthy Group of Seven countries decided to ban imports of Russian gold in order to tighten sanctions on Moscow and cut off its means of financing the invasion. Ukraine.

But it was unclear whether there was a G7 consensus on the plan, with European Council President Charles Michel saying the matter should be handled carefully and discussed further. Read more

Britain, the United States, Japan and Canada have agreed to ban new imports of Russian gold, the British government announced on Sunday.

Britain said the ban targeted wealthy Russians who were buying safe-haven bullion to reduce the financial impact of Western sanctions. Russian gold exports were worth $15.5 billion last year.

G7 leaders from Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada also had ‘really constructive’ talks on a possible oil price cap Russian, said a German government source.

A French presidency official said Paris would push for a cap on oil and gas prices and was open to discussing a US proposal.

G7 leaders agreed on a pledge to raise $600 billion in private and public funds for developing countries to counter China’s growing influence and mitigate the impact of soaring food and energy prices.

G7 host German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has invited Senegal, Argentina, Indonesia, India and South Africa as partner countries to the summit. Many countries in the South are worried about the collateral damage of Western sanctions against Russia.

Oxfam and other campaign groups said the pain of food price spikes for developing countries was “visceral”.

They want G7 leaders to tax excessive corporate profits to help those affected by the food crisis, cancel the debts of the poorest countries and support developing countries in their fight against the food crisis and climate change.

An EU official said the G7 countries would make it clear to partner countries that the rise in food prices was the result of Russia’s actions and not Western sanctions.

Officials from some G7 countries, including Germany and Britain, are pushing for temporary waivers of biofuel mandates to tackle soaring food prices, according to people familiar with the matter.

But Germany expects the proposal to fail to gain G7 support due to US and Canadian resistance, a government official told Reuters on Sunday. Read more

UNIT TESTED

Western nations rallied around Kyiv when Russia invaded Ukraine in February, but more than four months into the war, that unity is being tested as soaring inflation and energy shortages affect their own citizens.

At the start of a bilateral meeting, Biden thanked Scholz for showing leadership on Ukraine and said Russian President Vladimir Putin had failed to break their unity.

“Putin has been counting on it from the beginning that NATO and the G7 will somehow break up. But we haven’t and we’re not going to,” Biden said.

The summit provides an opportunity for Scholz to show more assertive leadership in the Ukraine crisis.

He swore a revolution in German foreign and defense policy after Russia invaded in February, but critics have since accused him of dragging his feet.

As missiles hit the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Sunday, hitting an apartment building and a kindergarten, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the G7 must respond with more weapons and tougher sanctions against Russia. Read more

Biden called the strikes an act of “barbarism.”

G7 leaders are also expected to discuss options for tackling rising energy prices and replacing Russian oil and gas imports, as well as new sanctions that don’t deepen the cost of living crisis that is affecting their own populations.

Soaring global energy and food prices are hitting economic growth following the conflict in Ukraine, with the United Nations warning of an “unprecedented global hunger crisis”. Read more

Climate change should also be on the G7 agenda.

Reporting by Sarah Marsh, Andreas Rinke, Andrea Shalal, Philip Blenkinsop, John Irish and William Schomberg; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky; Written by Sarah Marsh, Matthias Williams and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Peter Graff, David Goodman, David Clarke and Jane Merriman

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