Ukraine, China mineral dominance on agenda as G-7 foreign ministers meet
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arriving to board a flight to Canada on Nov 11 for the G-7 foreign ministers' meeting.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
- G-7 foreign ministers met in Canada to discuss the Ukraine conflict and funding for Kyiv, following recent US sanctions on Russian oil companies.
- Discussions included expanding the conversation beyond the G-7 to include nations like Saudi Arabia and addressing Sudan's humanitarian crisis.
- Critical mineral supply chains and countering China's dominance were a focus, with plans for joint projects to increase refining capacity.
AI generated
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Canada - Group of 7 (G-7) foreign ministers were gathering in Canada on Nov 11 for talks expected to focus on Ukraine, as the club of industrialised democracies seeks a path towards ending the four-year-old conflict.
Options to fund Kyiv’s war needs against invasion by Russia could feature prominently at the talks in Canada’s Niagara region on the US border.
The diplomats are meeting after US President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies
Mr Trump has also pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine.
Ukraine is enduring devastating Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, but Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand stopped short of promising concrete outcomes to aid Kyiv at the Niagara talks.
She told AFP a priority for the meeting was broadening discussion beyond the Group of Seven, which includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
“For Canada, it is important to foster a multilateral conversation, especially now, in such a volatile and complicated environment,” Ms Anand said.
Representatives from Saudi Arabia, India, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Mexico and South Korea will also be at the meeting held a short drive from the iconic Niagara Falls.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hold bilateral talks with Ms Anand on Nov 12, the second and final day of the G-7 meeting.
Ms Anand said she did not expect to press the issue of Mr Trump’s trade war, which has forced Canadian job losses and squeezed economic growth.
“We will have a meeting and have many topics to discuss concerning global affairs,” Ms Anand told AFP.
“The trade issue is being dealt with by other ministers.”
Mr Trump abruptly ended trade talks with Canada
The president has voiced fury over an ad, produced by Ontario’s provincial government, which quoted former US president Ronald Reagan on the harm caused by tariffs.
Sudan, Critical minerals
Italy’s foreign ministry said there will also be discussions on Sudan, gripped by a war since April 2023 that has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Delivering aid to the war-ravaged African country will be a focus of the talks, which come hours after UN humanitarian coordinator Tom Fletcher met with Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, on getting life-saving supplies to civilians.
The G-7‘s top diplomats are meeting two weeks after the grouping’s energy secretaries agreed on steps to counter China’s dominance of critical mineral supply chains, a growing area of concern for the world’s industrialised democracies.
Beijing has established commanding market control over the refining and processing of various minerals – especially the rare earth materials
The G-7 announced an initial series of joint projects in October to ramp up refining capacity that excludes China.
While the US was not party to any of those initial deals, the Trump administration has signalled alignment with its G-7 partners.
A State Department official told reporters ahead of the Niagara meet that critical mineral supply chains would be “a major point of focus.”
“There’s a growing global consensus amongst a lot of our partners and allies that economic security is national security,” the official said. AFP
