US blocks G7 plan to counter Russian shadow fleet

According to Bloomberg, President Donald Trump’s administration has vetoed a G7 plan to create an operational group against the shadow fleet Russia uses to circumvent oil sanctions.

This proposal, presented during Canada’s G7 presidency, was rejected by the US.

Sources indicate that this is due to President Donald Trump’s administration reviewing its positions in multilateral organizations.

The G7 Foreign Ministers Summit will be held in Quebec this week. Ahead of the summit, the G7 is trying to agree on a joint declaration on maritime security issues.

The US is demanding tougher wording on China and a softening of rhetoric towards Russia.

In addition to vetoing Canada’s proposal, Washington requested the removal of the word “sanctions” and the replacement of the phrase “Russia’s ability to wage war” with “its ability to generate revenue.”

The G7 declaration is not finalized unless it is published with the consensus of all members.

In February, the G7, including Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, failed to issue a joint statement on the third anniversary of Ukraine’s military intervention due to the US opposition to strongly condemning Russia.

Earlier, it was reported that European countries were discussing a plan to allow them to seize tankers belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea on grounds of environmental violations or piracy.

According to Politico’s sources, the proposals include using international legal norms to detain the ships.

Additionally, EU countries could act alone or in cooperation by introducing national requirements that would allow them to stop suspicious tankers even outside their territorial waters.

The term “shadow fleet” refers to the old oil tankers Russia uses to circumvent Western sanctions, including a price cap of $60 per barrel, imposed due to the war against Ukraine.

The EU has repeatedly warned of the risk of environmental disaster due to the active use of such ships.

At least nine incidents have been identified where tankers carrying Russian energy resources left oil slicks tens of kilometers long.

In December, 12 countries in Northern Europe agreed to check insurance policies on Russian tankers.

Although ships are not obliged to stop in response to such a request, those that refuse will be recorded in a database: inclusion in this database could be grounds for imposing sanctions.

Denmark has instructed the inspection of suspicious ships that may pose a danger to shipping and the environment.

According to estimates by Lloyd’s List and the Kyiv School of Economics, Russia’s shadow fleet consists of more than 600 tankers.

These tankers carry approximately 70% of the oil exported by sea. Information about the owners and insurance of many of them is not available.