G7 leaders have urged China to put pressure on Russia to end hostilities in Ukraine and renounce its "expansive maritime claims" in the South China Sea, Reuters reports .
“We call on China to put pressure on Russia so that it <…> stops military aggression and immediately and unconditionally withdraws its troops from Ukraine,” the summit’s final communiqué says ( TASS quote).
The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented on this statement: “The final communiqué of the G7 summit, in which Western democracies ask China to influence Russia, is similar to the capitulation of liberalism.”
The G7 is an informal international club uniting Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Japan and the USA.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden announced that the G7 countries intend to impose a ban on the import of Russian gold. “We will ban the import of Russian gold, which brings the country tens of billions of dollars,” he said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also announced a ban on the import of Russian gold. “This will be a blow to the heart of Putin's war machine,” he said. According to the website of the UK government, the ban will soon come into force, it will also be supported by Canada and Japan.