The leaders of Canada, Germany and Norway are urging Trump to rethink his suspendion of Russian oil sanctions. In comments to Euronews, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said he is “concerned” at the potential impact on Ukraine.German Chancellor Frederich Merz said on Friday that six out of seven G7 countries were against the US’ decision to give Russia a reprieve from oil sanctions. US President Donald Trump carried out the move in order to boost global supply amid soaring prices, which came as a consequence the US-Israeli war that was launched against Iran on 28 February.The leaders of Germany, Canada and Norway – all NATO member states – said they would use their channels of communication with the White House to try and change Trump’s mind.
The trio reiterated the alliance’s stance that maximum pressure still needs to be applied on the Kremlin over its war in Ukraine and its wider threat to global security.
“Six out of seven were clearly of the opinion that we should not release the sanctions against Russia”, said Merz
The three leaders agreed that maximum pressure should continue to be applied on the Kremlin over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and urged that Russia should not benefit from a reintroduction to global oil markets.
The decision “should be not the case because Russia is benefitting from that”, insisted Merz.
“We should put more pressure on Russia to bring this terrible war to an end as soon as possible, and that’s the reason why we are having a different view on this decision which was taken in [Washington] DC last night”, he said.
Asked at the press conference if G7 countries or NATO would lobby Trump to revise his decision, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said “we all have direct lines to the president, and we’ll use them.”
Merz said he would speak to French President Macron to see if they can find a way around Trump’s plan: “We will have the opportunity to speak with each other over the weekend. And we will check what we can do.”
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