The United States on Friday welcomed the European Union’s (EU) agreement to join a Group of Seven (G-7) initiative to set a $60-a-barrel price cap on Russian oil exports, saying that it would “slow down” the Kremlin “war machine”. “.
“I’m glad they’re moving forward together toward price containment,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“We continue to believe that the price cap will help limit Mr. [Vladimiro] Putin’s ability to profit from speculation in the oil market and continue to fund the war machine that continues to kill innocent Ukrainians.”
Poland’s ambassador to the EU announced earlier on Friday that the EU would join the initiative of G-7 countries to set an upper limit of $60 per barrel of Russian oil prices.
Poland, which had called for lower price “caps”, withdrew its objection to the European proposal and this price cap measure will be officially approved this weekend, Andrzej Sadosis told reporters.
“We can formally approve the decision,” he noted and explained that EU member states have agreed to speed up the preparation of a new – already ninth – sanctions package against Russia.
The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU and diplomats from other member states said that the agreement on the oil price cap had been approved and that the bureaucratic procedure necessary for the entry into force of the agreement was already underway.
From Monday, the EU will start enforcing an embargo on Russian oil shipments, so the price “cap” politically agreed with Washington and the G-7 group of rich democratic states will also apply to ” Russian black gold.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned last week that any Western attempt to put a “cap” on Russian oil prices would have “serious consequences” for world markets.
Source: The Delfi
