DAVOS, Switzerland – Belgium is not opposed to the confiscation of Russia’s central bank’s frozen assets worth 280 billion euros (S$400 billion), but there needs to be a clear mechanism, such as using the assets as collateral for Ukraine. said Prime Minister Alexander de Croo. he told Reuters.
After President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in 2022, the United States and its allies banned transactions with Russia’s central bank and Treasury, and blocked approximately US$300 billion of Russian sovereign assets in Western countries.
G7 countries are discussing the possibility of confiscation of frozen Russian assets, with some G7 members raising concerns about the precedent, mechanism and potential impact of taking such action on central bank assets. I’m holding you.
De Croo told Reuters in Davos that Belgium was open to talks about what to do with the interest in frozen Russian assets and the actual assets themselves.
“I won’t say no to asset confiscation, but we need to work on creating a mechanism. For example, they can be used as collateral to raise funds for Ukraine,” he said.
“We are open to further discussions and happy to participate in a solution that finds a legal basis for transfers to Ukraine without destabilizing the global financial system,” he said.
Decroux said the risk is that central banks often deposit assets with each other, which could undermine financial stability.
The bulk of the assets – essentially securities invested by Russia’s central bank – are frozen at the Brussels-based depository Euroclear.
Some securities are being converted into cash as they mature, and the transaction is subject to a 25% tax, he said.
“If we have taxable income, we will sequester it so that it can be sent to Ukraine,” Decroo told Reuters in Davos.