The talks covered financial cooperation and President Trump’s Ukraine peace plan, according to Russian officials and NBC News.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 gathering in Asheville, North Carolina, the Russian government said, according to Bloomberg.
The officials discussed bilateral financial cooperation and work within the G20. It was Siluanov’s first in-person attendance at a G20 meeting since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The meeting marked rare high-level contact between the US and Russian economic teams as relations remain strained by the war and Western sanctions. German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said European officials refused to pose with Siluanov for the traditional group photograph.
Klingbeil said Siluanov’s attendance suggested an attempt to normalize relations with Russia and criticized the absence of clarity from the US side. The Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Siluanov has overseen Russia’s finances during the war, including increased defense spending and efforts to cushion the economy from sanctions. Bessent oversees US sanctions policy toward Russia.
Bessent also discussed President Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace plan with Siluanov, NBC News reported, citing the Treasury Department. Negotiations have yet to produce a breakthrough, and Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on settlement terms.
