(ANSA-AFP) - BARI, JUN 13 - G7 leaders gather Thursday for
the first day of an Italy summit, hoping to seal a deal on
providing $50 billion for Ukraine using frozen Russian assets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will join US President
Joe Biden and leaders from Italy, Britain, France, Germany,
Canada and Japan at the luxury Borgo Egnazia resort in Puglia.
The G7 leaders hope to agree on an urgent $50 billion loan to
help Kyiv with defence, budgetary support and help for
reconstruction after more than two years of war with Russia. The
loan would be secured against the future profits from interest
on 300 billion euros ($325 billion) of Russian central bank
assets frozen by Western allies. "We are on the verge of a good
outcome here," US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.
"Hopefully by the time that leaders meet today, we will have a
common vision on the way forward," he told reporters ahead of
the formal opening of the summit. But he said delegations were
still thrashing out the details, including how many countries
would "step up" and the kind of financial vehicle involved.
(ANSA-AFP).
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