ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The appearance of Russia’s finance minister at a G-20 meeting, his first in person since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sparked protests Monday from European participants.
Anton Siluanov and leaders of the Russian central bank were invited to the meeting of the G-20 finance ministers and central bankers by the Trump administration.
Moscow targeted civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles and drones on Monday for the fifth day in a row. European governments, opposed to Russia’s attempt to redraw the continent’s borders by force, have given Kyiv more than $250 billion in financial and military support since the February 2022 invasion.
“I find the signal sent by receiving the Russian finance minister here quite troubling,” German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told reporters in Asheville. “I would have wanted greater clarity from the American side that he should not be received here as a normal guest.”
President Donald Trump defended the invitation Monday.
“We’re going to see what happens, but we like getting along with everybody,” Trump said told reporters in the Oval Office. “One of the reasons that I’m so successful, I get along with everybody.”
Erin Browne, the Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, said the delegation was invited because Russia is a member of the G-20.
“It’s important to have dialogue even during times of conflict,” she told The Washington Post. Asked about the Europeans’ concerns, she said: “We’ve had constructive dialogue around the table in the plenary session.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would reemphasize Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine during his meeting with Siluanov.
Siluanov’s most recent previous appearance at a G-20 meeting, by video link in April 2022, prompted several Western finance ministers to walk out in protest.
Russia was expelled from the Group of Eight most industrialized nations — subsequently, the G-7 — after it illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, but it remains a member of the G-20.
European officials demanded Monday that Siluanov be excluded from the family photo, the traditional group picture of the leaders. It was taken without him.
Siluanov’s appearance comes less than a week after CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare unannounced trip to Moscow. He warned Russia against ramping up its war against Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the matter.
A Russian drone attack on a munitions depot in the Bucha district of Ukraine on Friday, three days after Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow, triggered an explosion that killed 38 people.
“People are dying every day,” Klingbeil said. “We have just seen another escalation in the attacks. … You cannot simply return to normality.”
Russian drone incursions into neighboring European Union and NATO countries and sabotage attacks have rattled security on the continent. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday his government was preparing a response to an attempted armed drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport this month that analysts and some governments say appears to have been the work of Russia.
Former senior German security officials say the attack appeared to be part of a significant uptick in hybrid warfare by Moscow that has targeted weapons plants and other facilities in Europe supplying Ukraine as it seeks to sap Western support.
Bessent planned to rally his foreign counterparts to focus on economic growth to beat back rising global debt and to encourage countries to sever economic ties with Iran as part of the administration’s “Operation Economic Outcast.”
In sessions on Monday, participants discussed the global economic landscape, trade imbalances and opportunities for growth, Browne told reporters. Several noted the risks to the global economy posed by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major chokepoint for the world’s oil supply, in response to U.S.-Israeli attacks.
“It remains our ultimate objective to ensure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon,” she said. “Doing so will reduce long-term economic and market volatility.”
The administration also invited several American CEOs, including Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, to the meeting to connect public officials with private sector leaders.
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