Ottawa [Canada], June 10: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday announced 5 billion Canadian dollars (3.6 billion U.S. dollars) in funding as the country's contribution to G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) Loans, an initiative of using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.
At the G7 (Group of Seven) summit in Apulia, Italy, the G7 reached consensus to launch G7 ERA Loans for Ukraine in order to make approximately 69 billion Canadian dollars (50 billion U.S. dollars) in additional funding available to Ukraine by the end of the year, Trudeau said in a press release.
"Canada has long advocated for new and innovative ways to support Ukraine," said Trudeau. "Through this initiative, G7 countries would intend to bring forward the future revenues from frozen Russian sovereign assets."
According to the release, the G7 intends to provide financing that will be serviced and repaid by future flows of extraordinary revenues stemming from the immobilization of Russian sovereign assets held in the European Union and other jurisdictions.
Trudeau first proposed freezing the assets of Russia's central bank at the G7 leaders' meeting on Feb. 24, 2022, and in Budget 2022, Canada introduced the world's first legislation to allow the seizure and forfeiture of sanctioned Russian assets.
According to local media reports, the Canadian police has frozen 140 million Canadian dollars (102 million U.S. dollars) in Russian assets in Canada since February 2022, and Global Affairs Canada said it ordered the seizure of a Russian plane and a company believed to be tied to a Russian oligarch.
Source: Xinhua