Germany is already strongly supporting Ukraine and now other countries must do their part, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Thursday after a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7)in the Indian city of Bengaluru.
"Germany is already strongly committed and now others internationally must also make their contributions," Lindner said. He added that Germany was already providing Ukraine with strong support in the form of military equipment, had given a grant of 1 billion euros last year, and was also part of the European Union loans to Ukraine.
"It isn't the task of just a few countries, but of all the members of the International Monetary Fund," Lindner said.
The G7 nations on Thursday raised economic support to Ukraine to $39 billion for this year and urged an IMF programme for the country by the end of March, according to a statement released by the bloc's current president, Japan.
Additional financial support for Ukraine is needed and the IMF is working on a new support programme of 15 billion euros that Germany supports, the finance minister said, adding that there should be a "fair sharing of burdens and risks."
The pressure on Russia must be kept high, Lindner said on the eve of the anniversary of that country's invasion of Ukraine. "We have to make further efforts to completely isolate Russia from international markets," he said.
A second important topic in the G7 meeting was the situation of highly indebted countries. These countries must retain access to international financial markets so they can continue to import energy and food, Lindner said.
"We need to remind China every time we can that it has a great responsibility as one of the largest global creditors," Lindner said. For this reason, the country has been pressed repeatedly to make concessions to indebted developing countries.
(Reporting by Christian Kraemer; Writing by Maria Martinez; Editing by Friederike Heine, Emma-Victoria Farr and Mark Porter)
