Redoubling efforts to support Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression is “the best thing” we can do to help the global economy, beyond helping developing countries, the US Treasury Secretary said today. Janet Yellen.

The American minister is today in Gandhinagar, western India, attending a meeting of G7 finance ministers, ahead of her participation in the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in the same city tomorrow, Monday, and the day after tomorrow, Tuesday.

A “significant priority” is to “double our support to Ukraine,” she stressed at a press conference she gave, adding that during her visit to Kiev in February she had first-hand knowledge of the “massive” impact that foreign aid to Ukraine has, both both civilian and military.

“Ending this war is above all a moral imperative. But it’s also the best thing we could do for the global economy,” he noted.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – with the two countries being two of the world’s major breadbaskets – sent shockwaves through the global economy last year, triggering spikes in food and energy prices.

“Fiscal support is essential for Ukraine’s resistance,” Yellen reminded, also referring to the importance given by the G7 to the fight against Moscow’s circumvention of international sanctions.

Yellen also tried to calm concerns that massive support for Ukraine will come at the expense of aid to the countries of the South: “I reject the idea of ​​a trade-off” between these two challenges, she emphasized.

The US Treasury Secretary brought as evidence the efforts being made to reform multilateral development banks, starting with the first among them, the World Bank, in order to strengthen their effectiveness in the coming years.

He also reported progress in the debt restructuring of countries such as Zambia, and said he was counting on an imminent finalization of similar files for Ghana and Sri Lanka.

The “illegal” war waged by Russia in Ukraine is also a cause of the recent worsening of developing countries’ over-indebtedness, he also noted.