The meeting, which China and Russia are attending,
is focused on the ongoing economic shock from the war in Iran, which has driven
up oil prices globally.
·
It was
his first physical attendance at such a gathering since Russia’s 2022 invasion
of Ukraine.
·
The
invitation, extended by the Trump administration, triggered sharp objections
from European officials who have sought to keep Russia diplomatically isolated.
·
German
Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said he confronted Siluanov over the war and
demanded that Russia end its invasion of Ukraine.
·
European
representatives threatened to boycott the customary group photograph if
Siluanov appeared in it; the final photo was taken without him.
·
Ukraine’s
finance minister, Serhiy Marchenko, was expected to participate remotely in a
separate G7 finance ministers’ meeting led by France.
·
The
U.S. Treasury said the G20 meeting would address global growth, inflation, high
borrowing costs, debt pressures, critical-mineral supply chains and investment.
·
Officials
were also expected to discuss U.S.-led efforts to increase economic pressure on
Iran, including the “Operation Economic Outcast” sanctions initiative.
·
European
officials were additionally upset that South Africa was not invited to the
meeting, following President Trump’s decision to exclude it.
·
The
meeting also drew criticism over U.S. restrictions on press credentials for
reporters from several major international news organizations.
[ABS News Service/01.09.2026]
Russia’s
finance minister made a surprise appearance at a gathering of top global economic
policymakers on Monday (31.08.2026) after a prolonged absence, an invitation that
was extended by the Trump administration but drew rebukes and protests from European
officials committed to isolating Moscow for its war against Ukraine.
The
summit of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations, in
the mountain town of Asheville, N.C., was billed by the Treasury Department as a
chance to find global cooperation on new economic punishments for Iran and new strategies
to boost growth at a time of stubbornly high inflation and rising borrowing costs
that are straining government budgets.
Instead,
the meeting opened on Monday morning with European outrage over the Russian finance
minister, Anton Siluanov, who was physically in attendance for the first time since
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Lars
Klingbeil, the German vice chancellor and finance minister, told reporters that
he had scolded Mr. Siluanov during an early session of the meeting for the invasion,
demanding that Russia end the war and pledging ongoing support for Ukraine, which
was not represented in person at the gathering.
Serhiy
Marchenko, Ukraine’s finance minister, is expected to participate by video conference
on Monday afternoon in a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 7 nations
that France is leading. France is host of the G7 this year and will be holding the
meeting on the sidelines of the broader G20 gathering.
European
leaders have worked to isolate Russia in the global economy and on the diplomatic
stage, and, at a moment in the war when Moscow has relentlessly bombarded Kyiv,
they did not want anything at the meeting to suggest that has changed.
“Receiving
the Russian finance minister here sends a signal I find troubling,” Mr. Klingbeil
told reporters on Monday afternoon. “I would have preferred clear positioning from
the U.S. side that he not be received like a regular guest.”
Mr.
Siluanov’s presence was not announced publicly by American officials before the
summit, and White House officials did not respond to questions on Sunday over whether
he had been invited. His appearance came as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia
was set to join President Xi Jinping of China and President Masoud Pezeshkian of
Iran at a summit in Kyrgyzstan. China’s finance minister and the head of its central
bank were, as is typical, also in attendance at the G20 meeting.
Mr.
Klingbeil said European representatives had unanimously demanded that their American
hosts not include Mr. Siluanov in a traditional group photo from the summit, threatening
to boycott if he was in the picture.
It
was eventually taken without him, and with the Europeans.
Many
Europeans were also upset that representatives from South Africa, a longtime member
of the G20 and Africa’s largest economy, were not invited by the Treasury Department
to Asheville. President Trump announced last year, after skipping a G20 summit hosted
by South Africa, that he would exclude the country from this year’s meetings, citing
a false narrative that white South Africans were being indiscriminately killed and
that their land was being seized.
Administration
officials invited a group of American business executives, from industries like
banking and cryptocurrency, to meet with the government leaders in an effort to
create networking opportunities between government officials and the private sector.
They rebuffed requests to also include executives from other G20 countries. The
moves have unsettled some attendees at the gathering; Mr. Klingbeil appeared to
have left the first C.E.O. session to speak to reporters.
As
he welcomed his international counterparts to the summit, Treasury Secretary Scott
Bessent said the U.S. wanted to refocus the G20 on its original mission of accelerating
global growth. He said countries needed to work together to reverse global economic
imbalances that were harming many nations.
“A
durable global economy cannot rest on beggar-thy-neighbor
acts that stifle fair, market-based competition,” Mr. Bessent said.
The
summit comes at a pivotal moment, with the International Monetary Fund projecting
that global growth will slow this year and inflation will rise. The decision by
the United States to attack Iran in February disrupted the flow of oil and pushed
energy prices higher, darkening the outlook for a world economy that has been battered
by wars and a pandemic in recent years.
Huddled
in a North Carolina mountain resort, officials were expected to discuss ways to
reinforce global supply chains for commodities such as critical minerals, opportunities
to increase international investment and strategies for reducing or restructuring
debt. The conversations are taking place as the U.S. gross national debt just topped
$40 trillion, creating anxiety among bondholders and raising fears about higher
borrowing costs.
“Mounting
fiscal pressures, as evidenced by rising bond yields, and a stalled disinflation
process — they are sources of worries both for markets and for policymakers,” Kristalina
Georgieva, managing director of the I.M.F., told reporters ahead of the meetings.
Those
concerns have been especially evident in the United States. In recent weeks, Mr.
Bessent initiated surprising interventions in global currency markets and in the
U.S. bond market in an effort to contain rising borrowing costs. Those measures
have so far been only modestly effective, and they have drawn pushback from the
European Union, which has seen its own currency suffer as a result of some of Mr.
Bessent’s machinations.
Global
leaders also remain wary of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has driven up
energy costs worldwide, disrupted supply chains and dragged on growth.
Unifying
the G20 has been a challenge for the administration, as countries continue to cope
with the uncertainty surrounding Mr. Trump’s trade policies and the steep tariffs
that he has imposed on imports, along with fallout from the war.
American
officials have asked allies to join their “Operation Economic Outcast” initiative,
which aims to strangle the Iranian economy and resolve the conflict through economic
sanctions. Mr. Bessent warned last week that countries that did not sever economic
ties with Iran would also face U.S. sanctions.
A
senior Treasury official said in a briefing ahead of the Asheville meetings that
the Iran plans would feature prominently in the discussions. Mr. Bessent signaled last week that the United States would have limited
patience for countries that maintained economic ties with Iran, and that he hoped
other countries would comply with the Trump administration’s demands to cut off
Iran in order to avoid a broader global economic war.
“Why
would I want to blow up the global financial system?” Mr. Bessent said.
In
another controversy, the Treasury has denied press credentials for attending the
meetings to certain U.S.-based reporters for The New York Times and The Wall Street
Journal, along with correspondents for Bloomberg News from several countries.
Germany’s
finance ministry intervened with the Treasury after it initially denied credentials
to German-based reporters from The Times and Bloomberg, who planned to travel with
Mr. Klingbeil to Asheville.
The
ministry succeeded in securing a credential for the Times reporter, the newspaper’s
Berlin bureau chief, but not the Bloomberg reporter.
A
diplomatic official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under a customary practice
in the official’s home country, said German officials viewed the denial of credentials
for Bloomberg, an international news agency, as unprecedented and unacceptable.