Bessent Says US Expects Japan to Stop Buying Russian Energy

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that he told Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato that the Trump administration expects Japan to stop importing Russian energy.

“Minister Kato and I also discussed important issues pertaining to the U.S.-Japan economic relationship and the Administration’s expectation that Japan stop importing Russian energy,” Bessent said on X, after the two met on Wednesday.

Bessent and Kato met on the sidelines of the annual International Monetary Fund meeting, and the G7 and G20 finance leaders’ gatherings held this week in Washington.

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“Japan will do what it can based on the basic principle of coordinating with G7 countries to achieve peace in Ukraine in a fair manner,” Kato told reporters, when asked whether Japan was urged to stop importing Russian energy from Bessent.

The Group of Seven (G7) nations – the U.S., Japan, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Italy – agreed earlier this month to coordinate and intensify sanctions against Moscow over its war in Ukraine by targeting countries that buy Russian oil and thereby enable sanctions circumvention.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil, additional reporting by Leika Kinara in Washington; Editing by Costas Pitas and Sonali Paul)