Britain will announce a ban on the sale of Russian diamonds as the West seeks to toughen sanctions against Moscow ahead of an expected offensive by Ukraine.
On Friday, British PM Rishi Sunak will also announce a block on the import of industrially significant metals, as well as specific sanctions on another 86 senior figures and companies in Vladimir Putin’s military industrial complex.
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Suna.
As world leaders gathered for the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, the UK prime minister said he hoped other Western nations would follow suit.
However, he could face an uphill task: since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began last year, countries such as Belgium have opposed plans to ban the country’s diamonds.
Sunak has been in Japan since Thursday, where he held face-to-face talks with Fumio Kishida, the country’s prime minister.
Elsewhere, Akshata Murthy, Sunak’s wife, visited a university in Tokyo.
On Friday, the British PM will visit the Atomic Bomb Dome at the Hiroshima Peace Park with fellow G7 leaders.
Sunak said: “For the sake of global peace and security, we must show that brutal violence and coercion does not reap rewards.
“As the sanctions announcements demonstrate, the G7 remains unified in the face in the face of the threat from Russia and steadfast in our support for Ukraine.
“We are meeting in Hiroshima, a city that exemplifies both the horrors of war and the dividends of peace. We must redouble our efforts to defend the values of freedom, democracy and tolerance, both in Ukraine and here in the Indo-Pacific.”
Britain has implemented its most severe set of sanctions ever imposed on a major economy to undermine Russia’s war effort.
The UK has sanctioned more than 1500 individuals, freezing more than £18 billion ($33.7 billion) of assets in Britain and sanctioned more than £20 billion of UK-Russia goods trade.
The ban on Russian diamonds will disrupt an industry that was worth $4 billion (£3.2 billion) in exports in 2021.
The sanctions also ban imports of Russian-origin copper, aluminium and nickel. This builds on a previous ban on iron and steel.
Alongside the harsh measures, the government will also sanction an additional 86 people and companies from Putin’s military-industrial complex, and those involved in key revenue streams such as energy, metals and shipping.
The announcement followed the British prime minister’s meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, where he stressed the importance of long-term international support for Ukraine.
He will then attend sessions on international co-operation, the G7 response to Ukraine, Indo-Pacific security policy and nuclear non-proliferation.
The UK prime minister will urge fellow leaders to stay the course on Ukraine.
Britain has previously taken the lead on action on Russian diamonds, sanctioning Alrosa, the state-owned company, and increasing tariffs by an additional 35 per cent.
Now the UK will go even further, legislating later this year to ban imports of Russian diamonds.
Sanctions imposed on Russia by the UK and its G7 partners are having an impact, the UK has insisted. Moscow is cut off from Western financial markets and there has been a sustained reduction in the country’s oil revenues.