US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday that she saw "no obstacles" in his discussions with his fellow G7 finance ministers for a bigger loan to Ukraine secured by the proceeds of frozen Russian sovereign assets.
Yellen said in an interview with "Reuters", on the sidelines of a meeting of G-7 financial leaders, that not all technical details of the loan proposal should be clarified this weekend.
"I think things are looking pretty good, Yellen said after several bilateral meetings on the first day of a two-day financial summit in the northern Italian resort town of Stresa to agree on the concept of the loan. "I haven't seen any brakes, but there are some issues that we need to resolve and people will have to be flexible to reach common ground," Yellen said.
The head of the US Treasury Department is urging his counterparts in the talks to agree to withdraw the profits of about $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets to support a bigger loan to Ukraine. But it became clear that no firm details about the loan will emerge from the negotiations in Stresa.
"I'm quite hopeful that we can basically agree that this is a concept that we can develop a bit more over the next few weeks and bring it to the leaders for consideration in June."
G7 leaders are due to meet next month in Puglia, southern Italy.
Yellen also said she has "differing views" among G7 finance ministers about the level of concern about China's industrial overcapacity, which she says threatens the viability of firms in market-driven economies.
On the first day of the G7 meeting, some ministers expressed concern about a potential trade war as a result of new US tariffs on Chinese goods, but the finance ministers of Germany, France and hosts Italy said a common front was needed against the growing export to China.
"I think there is a general view that we need to express a common set of concerns to China, she said. It is that China's overall macroeconomic strategy is worrisome and has negative side effects."
The group of industrial democracies includes the US, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy.
Russia will identify American property, including securities, that can be used as compensation for losses incurred as a result of the seizure of frozen Russian assets in the United States, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
Russia's ability to retaliate if Western leaders seize its frozen assets has been undermined by declining foreign investment, but it may instead go after the money of private investors, officials and economists told Reuters. this month.
Thursday's decree states that Russian individuals can ask a Russian court to determine whether their property was wrongfully seized and seek compensation.
The court will then order the compensation to be transferred in the form of US assets or property in Russia from a list to be prepared by the Russian government's commission on the sale of foreign assets.