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The
trip, Yellen's first visit to the Indo-Pacific region as
treasury secretary, comes amid nagging questions about how well
a price cap on Russian oil could work absent the support of
India and others now buying cheap Russian oil.
Yellen will hold bilateral meetings in Tokyo on July 12-13
before gathering with Group of 20 finance officials in Bali,
Indonesia, from July 15-16, followed by a day of talks in Seoul
on July 19, Treasury said in a statement.
The trip is part of a broader push to "reassert America's
leadership role in the region and globally," expand support for
sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine, and strengthen
efforts to respond to an increasingly assertive China, Treasury
said.
The United States and other Group of Seven rich nations -
Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Japan, along with
the European Union - last week agreed to explore imposing a ban
on transporting Russian oil sold above a certain price in an
effort to reduce Moscow's revenues and deplete its war chest.
As the European Union prepares to impose a phased embargo on
Russian oil and ban maritime insurance for any tanker that
carries Russian oil, Yellen sees the cap as a way to keep oil
flowing and avert a price spike that could prompt a recession.
Washington was proposing a "price exception" that would rescind
the maritime insurance ban in cases where the price cap was
observed, a senior Treasury official said.
Details were still being worked out on how to structure and
implement such a cap, with each country needing to decide on its
own approach, the official said.
Some European officials say they are skeptical about how well a
cap would work, especially absent India, China and others that
are buying large amounts of discounted Russia oil.
Washington was in talks with "a growing number" of countries
about the cap, the second official said, citing "good progress"
across the board.
"The more we talk to different countries about it, the more they
understand the concept that we're putting forward and understand
the rationale," the second Treasury official said. Failing to
cap the price of Russian oil, the official said, would allow
Moscow to continue to collect cash for its "war machine."
Outreach to India would continue in coming weeks, the official
added.
A separate source told Reuters last week that G7 governments
were still determining which services for oil transport could be
withdrawn for cargoes above the price cap and were considering
direct bans of shipping services, insurance, trade finance,
brokering of cargoes and other services.
Yellen planned to thank Japan for supporting the G7 initiative,
Treasury said. The Kremlin last criticized Japan for adopting a
"very unfriendly position" toward Russia by backing a study of
the ban.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mary Milliken and Leslie
Adler)
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