WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden departed for Italy on Wednesday to meet with Group of Seven leaders in an effort to increase pressure on Russia over its war against Ukraine.
The G7 leaders arrive at the summit confronting myriad woes at home even as they seek solutions for many of the world's most pressing problems.
Biden, 81, spent Tuesday evening at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, after a 12-member jury convicted his son Hunter Biden of lying about his drug use to illegally buy a gun in 2018, making him the first child of a sitting US president to be convicted of a crime.
The trial followed the May 30 criminal conviction of Republican former President Donald Trump, the first former US president to be found guilty of a felony.
The heads of the world's most developed democracies will address multiple challenges during the June 13-15 meeting, including wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, threats posed by artificial intelligence and development challenges in Africa.
The leaders will announce new sanctions and export controls against Russia that target entities and networks helping President Vladimir Putin's forces fight the war in Ukraine, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday. "We're going to continue to drive up costs for the Russian war machine," Kirby said.
Washington plans to widen sanctions on the sale of semiconductor chips and other goods to Russia, sources familiar with the plans said late on Tuesday.
The administration will announce it is broadening existing export controls to include US-branded goods, not just those made in the United States, the sources said. It will identify certain Hong Kong entities it says are shipping goods to Moscow.
Shoring up funding for Ukraine will be a top priority at the G7 meeting, with US and European officials eager to lock in solutions, ahead of a possible Trump re-election.
The Group of Seven nations and the European Union are considering how to use profits generated by Russian assets immobilised in the West to provide Ukraine with a large up-front loan.
"We will announce new steps to unlock the value of the immobilised Russian sovereign assets to benefit Ukraine and to help them recover from the destruction that Mr. Putin's army has caused," Kirby said.
Biden will press other G7 leaders to agree to an innovative plan to use future interest on some $281 billion of Russian central bank funds to back up a $50 billion loan to Ukraine. — Reuters
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