U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday that Russia should be expelled from the Group of 20 major economies forum, and the United States will boycott “a number of G20 meetings” if Russian officials show up.
Her comments at a U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing raised questions about the G20’s future role in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Since 2008, the club has served as a key international forum for issues from COVID-19 relief to cross-border debt and also includes China, India, Saudi Arabia and other countries that have been reluctant to condemn Russia’s actions.
Yellen told lawmakers that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the killings of civilians in Bucha “are reprehensible, represent an unacceptable affront to the rules-based global order, and will have enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond.”
The United States and its key allies have placed greater emphasis in recent months on the G7 grouping of industrial democracies, whose interests are more aligned, using G7 meetings to coordinate their response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Yellen said that the Biden administration wants to push Russia out of active participation in major international institutions, but acknowledged that it was unlikely that Russia could be expelled from the International Monetary Fund given its rules.
