The United States plans to push the G7 to contain Russia's energy and impose a maximum 100% secondary tariff on China and India.

According to media reports, the US government will urge its allies in the Group of Seven (G-7) to jointly impose up to 100% secondary tariffs on countries such as China and India that are buying Russian oil, with the aim of persuading Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his military operations in Ukraine. According to a proposal seen by the media within the US government, the US will also inform G-7 countries to create legal pathways to seize frozen Russian sovereign assets, and consider using the principal of these assets to fund Ukraine's military and defense systems. Statistics show that the vast majority of the approximately $300 billion in frozen Moscow assets are in Europe. Sources revealed that senior US officials have discussed with their European counterparts the idea of gradually seizing Russia's frozen massive assets to increase comprehensive pressure on Moscow and push it into peace talks with Ukraine. Currently, some of the income generated by these assets is being used to provide loans to Ukraine. The Group of Seven (G-7) consists of 7 member countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan; in addition, the European Union (EU) has long been a participant but is not counted as one of the "seven countries". Statistics show that India has become one of the major buyers of Russian oil in the Asian region. The average four-week crude oil shipments from all Russian ports show an increasing trend in purchases from India since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine. In the vessel tracking data monitored by institutions, "Asia Destination Unknown" includes ships departing from western Russian ports heading towards the Suez Canal; "Destination Unknown" includes ships without a clear destination or have transferred their cargo to ships with unknown destinations. Following the proposal by the Trump administration for the G-7 to impose widespread sanctions on Russian energy to end the war, Brent crude futures continued to rise and hit an intraday high. The euro exchange rate fell in response, dropping to an intraday low against the US dollar, closing near 1.1703 US dollars during the New York trading session. Canada, which currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the G-7, convened a meeting of G-7 finance ministers on Friday to "discuss further measures to increase pressure on Russia and restrict its war machine," according to a statement. Under the latest proposal, the US advocates for imposing high secondary tariffs ranging from 50% to 100% on China and India, and implementing restrictive trade measures for imports and exports to restrict the flow of Russian energy and prevent the transfer of dual-use technology to Russia. A White House spokesperson did not immediately comment on the proposal. The new sanctions are still in the proposal/initiative stage submitted by the US and would require unanimous agreement within the G7 (especially among EU members) to be implemented. US President Donald Trump has informed some European officials that he is willing to implement comprehensive new tariff policies on India and China to push for peace talks between Putin and Ukraine provided that European countries also do the same. Earlier media reports stated that Trump proposed this latest requirement for secondary sanctions on Russia during a meeting with senior US and EU officials in Washington this week, stating that if Europe imposes a certain rate of tariffs on China or India (either one or both), the US is willing to impose the same rate of tariffs on the same objects, in tandem with Europe, to execute consistent punitive tariffs. Given that several countries within the EU, including Hungary, have blocked stricter sanctions against Russia's energy sector, the proposal may face challenges within the EU as a whole. Such measures require the support of all member states. At the time of Trump's proposal, the deadline he set for a bilateral meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky has passed and there are no signs indicating that the Russian leader is genuinely willing to engage in face-to-face peace talks. Instead, Moscow has intensified its bombing campaign in Ukraine. The latest sanctions initiated by the US are not "imposing additional taxes on Russian oil itself," but rather imposing punitive (or "secondary") tariffs on China and India essentially imposing high tariffs (proposal range of 50% to 100%) on goods from China and India (imports to the G-7) and implementing stricter import and export restrictions to punish the continued purchase of Russian oil and to restrict Russia's government revenue sources from energy. The proposed sanctions presented to the G-7 also seek to impose comprehensive sanctions on Russia's so-called "shadow oil tanker fleet and trade network," as well as on the large Russian oil company Rosneft PJSC; and prohibit any insurance for Russia's maritime services. According to the proposal, the US will also call on its allies to sanction entities that support Russia's military industry and regional banks in Russia; and prohibit the provision of AI and fintech-related services to Russia's economic zones. Trump stated in a media interview on Friday that his patience with Putin is rapidly running out, adding that he may impose "harsher" sanctions on Russia through oil-related measures. So far, the Trump administration has not directly imposed sanctions on Russia, however, due to India's continued increase in purchases of Russian oil, Trump has doubled the tariffs on India, reaching 50%.