BANFF, Alberta (Reuters) -German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said on Thursday the Group of Seven advanced economies will most likely have a joint communique showing its support for Ukraine.
"We will make it clear and I am very positive that we will also reach a joint communique," Klingbeil said at a press conference in Banff.
If Russia is not prepared to enter into serious negotiations with Ukraine, "we will consider further sanctions," he added.
Klingbeil said that G7 finance ministers and their Ukrainian counterpart had concluded in a meeting that the conflict was "a brutal war" initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and that support for Ukraine continued unabated.
"I am optimistic that in the end such formulations will also be included in the communique, but please wait for the exact wording, as I want to leave that to the Canadian presidency this afternoon," he said.
(Reporting by Christian Kraemer and Maria Martinez, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Friederike Heine)
