International news via Reuters:

 Russia could win some relief from U.S. sanctions based on its willingness to negotiate an end to its war in Ukraine, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Thursday.

Bessent also said that he would speak with his Chinese counterpart on Friday and urge China to rebalance its economy towards increased consumer spending.

Asked whether the U.S. was prepared to increase sanctions on Russia or reduce them depending on how talks to end the Ukraine war go, Bessent said: “That’d be a very good characterization.”

He added: “The president is committed to ending this conflict very quickly.”

President Donald Trump has said he may meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month to discuss ending the war.

Bessent in the interview declined to provide timing for a Trump-Putin meeting, but confirmed that he would not attend next week’s G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in South Africa “due to some domestic considerations.”

During his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing, Bessent said that he would support increasing U.S. sanctions on Russian energy, especially oil majors, if Trump asks him to.

The Treasury chief criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for failing to sign a $500 billion deal to provide critical minerals to the U.S. and for escalating a war of words with Trump. The U.S. president accused Zelenskiy of being a “dictator.”

Bessent said that Zelenskiy “assured me that he would sign the minerals deal in Munich and he has not.” He described the minerals supply arrangement as part of an “elegant plan” to bring Ukraine closer to the U.S. orbit.

Zelenskiy on Wednesday rejected the U.S. demands for Ukraine to repay Washington that much in mineral wealth for wartime aid, saying the United States had supplied nowhere near that sum so far and offered no specific security guarantees in the agreement.

CHINA REBALANCING ARGUMENT

In the “introductory” call with his Chinese counterpart, Bessent said he would urge economic reforms to encourage more domestic consumption.

China’s foreign ministry said Vice Premier He Lifeng would speak with Bessent on Friday in a video call initiated by the U.S. side to communicate important issues in the economic field between the two countries.

Bessent’s predecessor, Janet Yellen, regularly spoke and met with He.

The same argument, that China should rely less on exports for growth, was made repeatedly by Yellen and numerous other U.S. Treasury secretaries over the years. But China has continued its investment and export-led policies.

“The Chinese need to rebalance their economy in favor of consumption – that they are suppressing the consumer in favor of the business community,” Bessent said.

DEBT ISSUANCE UNCHANGED

Bessent said any move to increase the share of longer-term Treasuries in government debt issuance is some way off, given hurdles including the Federal Reserve’s quantitative tightening program.

During Trump’s election campaign, Bessent was critical of Yellen’s heavy reliance on issuing shorter-term bills, which typically carry lower interest rates. He argued that it was aimed at boosting short-term growth, a strategy that Yellen denied.

“That’s a long way off, and we’re going to see what the market wants,” Bessent said when asked about shifting to longer-term issuance. “It’s going to be path dependent.”

He dismissed speculation the U.S. government might revalue its gold holdings in an effort to reduce borrowing needs or to fund the creation of a sovereign wealth fund, the report added.

(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Andrea Ricci)

International news by Antoni Slodkowski and Laurie Chen via Reuters:

For the last three years, China has repeatedly signalled a willingness to act as a peacemaker in the war in Ukraine.

There were rounds of shuttle diplomacy by Beijing’s envoy to countries from South Africa to Indonesia. A peace plan with Brazil. A group of “friends for peace” with developing nations. And even a proposal to send Chinese peacekeepers to Europe.

But when Russian and U.S. officials met in Saudi Arabia this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping was nowhere near the table, instead meeting with China’s tech entrepreneurs in Beijing.

China’s priorities are clear: it is focused on repairing its economy and trying to hammer out a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump to avoid another damaging trade war.

And while Beijing wants to be seen as a global peacemaker, it is seeking to do so without incurring costs or taking risks, especially if they could undermine its ties with Moscow, on which it relies for cheap energy.

“If China doesn’t buy gas from Russia, which country can provide enough gas to meet the needs of the Chinese people? It’s not possible, and it’s not safe,” China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, this week told the Munich Security Conference, a top global forum on security and diplomacy.

The statement, observers said, was the clearest illustration of how China was unwilling to use a major lever it had to pressure Russia – its record-breaking purchases of close to 23 billion cubic meters of gas annually.

Without a meaningful role in the Ukraine process, China has been able to focus on trade and the economy. Xi has directed Chinese bureaucrats to study Trump’s trade policies and prepare responses to his initial tariffs and threats, two people familiar with the situation say.

China has also deliberately dialed down the tone used by foreign ministry spokespeople to keep prospects of a deal with Trump alive, said the people, two of more than a dozen Reuters interviewed for this story.

They include people familiar with the thinking of the Chinese government, Beijing-based diplomats and analysts. Most spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

“We will… work with other countries, especially Global South countries, to put forth more objective, fair and rational voices, to gather consensus to stop the war and pave the way for peace,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement to Reuters.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Trump stunned the world this week by opening peace negotiations directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin without Ukraine or Europe, offering concessions before the talks started, calling Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a “dictator” and blaming him for the invasion Putin launched in February 2022.

In Munich, Wang called for “all stakeholders”, including Europe, to be at the negotiating table.

European diplomats said that while positive, Wang’s gesture fundamentally did not address the issue Europe has been raising with China for months: Its de facto bankrolling of the war through energy purchases and its support for Russia’s military-industrial base – which China denies.

Noah Barkin, senior adviser in Rhodium Group’s China practice, said Wang was advocating on Europe’s behalf because China is worried about getting shut out of postwar reconstruction.

“Europe and China’s interests are not aligned by any means, but both have an interest in ensuring that this does not turn into a pact sealed by Trump and Putin behind closed doors,” he said.

Diplomats also played down the notion that Trump’s rapid outreach to Putin could undermine Xi’s “no-limits” partnership with Russia.

“Wishful thinking. This idea ignores the depth of coordination, exchanges and closeness between the leaders,” said a senior European diplomat. “Russia is so reliant on China – they won’t risk their ties to Beijing because Trump gave them a call.”

Although for the last three years China has largely ignored Beijing-based Ukrainian diplomats by granting few meetings and not engaging in substantive talks, people familiar with the situation say, it has recently changed tack on Europe.

Several diplomats said they have noticed a much greater willingness by China to engage with European diplomats in recent days. Beijing even dispatched veteran diplomat Hua Chunying to Brussels, said two people briefed on her trip.

Ties between Brussels and Beijing have been frosty as the European Union raises issues including market access for European companies, the bloc’s massive trade deficit and China’s manufacturing overcapacity.

But despite greater engagement, China has not offered any concessions on those issues or made any decisive moves, anticipating the 10% tariffs Trump has imposed on Chinese goods was just his opening salvo, said the diplomats.

“I haven’t seen any signs that China is prepared to change its approach to trade or to Russia in order to facilitate some sort of rapprochement with Europe,” said Barkin. “Beijing probably believes that Europe is in such a position of weakness at the moment that concessions are unnecessary.”

Additional reporting by Hong Kong newsroom; Editing by Lincoln Feast.