San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Ministers seek united front to counter ‘malign behavior’
LIVERPOOL, England — Top diplomats from the Group of Seven industrialized nations gathered Saturday beside the River Mersey in Liverpool with host country Britain, seeking to demonstrate a show of unity amid a crisis over Russia’s intentions towards Ukraine.
The U.K. is seeking elusive consensus from the wealthy nations’ club in response to what it calls “malign behavior” by Russia, and over tensions with China and Iran.
“We need to defend ourselves against the growing threats from hostile actors,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said as she opened the meeting of foreign ministers from the U.K., the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. “And we need to come together strongly to stand up to aggressors who are seeking to limit the bounds of freedom and democracy.” The U.S. and its NATO allies are concerned that the movement of Russian troops and weapons to the border region with Ukraine may be a prelude to an invasion and have said they would inflict heavy sanctions on Russia’s economy if that happens. Moscow denies planning to attack Ukraine and accuses Kyiv of its own allegedly aggressive designs.
Truss and U.S. Secretary
of State Antony Blinken discussed how to deter Russia from “further aggression against Ukraine” in a one-on-one meeting, the State Department said. Britain said the two warned that a Russian incursion “would be a strategic mistake for which there would be serious consequences.”
The State Department announced Saturday that the top American diplomat for Europe, Karen Donfried, will visit both Kyiv and Moscow this week “to reinforce the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity” and to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis. After meeting with Ukrainian and Russian officials,
Donfried will go on to Brussels on to confer with NATO and European Union allies.
Attempting to rally unity among disparate the G-7 club of wealthy nations, Truss said that “free democratic nations” must wean themselves off Russian gas and Russian money to preserve their independence.
She said she wanted to work with other countries “to make sure that free democratic nations are able to have an alternative to Russian gas supplies,” a reference to the contentious Nord Stream 2 pipeline that was built to carry gas from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine.
The diplomats in Liverpool also plan to discuss
lagging efforts to vaccinate the world against coronavirus, tensions in the western Balkans, Afghanistan and North Korea, and China’s muscle-flexing in the IndoPacific region.
The gathering is taking place as negotiators meet in Vienna to try to revive an ailing international deal that seeks to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Blinken met German, French and British diplomats in Liverpool to discuss next steps over Iran, and the Biden administration’s special envoy on Iran, Robert Malley also stopped in the city on his way to Vienna.