🔺Bessant to Russia’s finance minister: Economic openings are not possible until the end of the war in Ukraine

▪ Scott Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary, told Anton Siluanov, Russia’s finance minister, that until the end of the war in Ukraine, no economic opening or agreement on other issues is possible.

▪ Reuters, citing an informed source, reported that the bilateral meeting took place on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, and when Siluanov tried to speak about areas of shared interests, Bessent cut him off and said: “Until the war ends, nothing is possible.”

▪ A U.S. official previously told Reuters that the focus of the meeting was Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine, the president of the United States.