By Ismail Shakil and Katya Golubkova
(Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that he told Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato that the Trump administration expects Japan to stop importing Russian energy.
“Minister Kato and I also discussed important issues pertaining to the U.S.-Japan economic relationship and the Administration’s expectation that Japan stop importing Russian energy,” Bessent said on X, after the two met on Wednesday.
Bessent and Kato met on the sidelines of the annual International Monetary Fund meeting, and the G7 and G20 finance leaders’ gatherings held this week in Washington.
“Japan will do what it can based on the basic principle of coordinating with G7 countries to achieve peace in Ukraine in a fair manner,” Kato told reporters, when asked whether Japan was urged by Bessent to stop importing Russian energy.
Tokyo has agreed with other G7 countries to phase out Russian oil imports in response to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
However, Japan continues to buy Sakhalin Blend crude, a byproduct of liquefied natural gas production at the Sakhalin-2 project, which is vital to Japan’s energy security as it accounts for about 9% of its LNG imports.
The Group of Seven (G7) nations – the U.S., Japan, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Italy – agreed earlier this month to coordinate and intensify sanctions against Moscow over its war in Ukraine by targeting countries that buy Russian oil and thereby enable sanctions circumvention.
Last month, Japan lowered its price cap on Russian oil to $47.60 per barrel from $60, effectively in line with a new price cap set by the European Union in July as part of its 18th sanctions package against Moscow.
Japan bought 95,299 kilolitres, or 599,413 barrels, of crude from Russia between January and July, accounting for just 0.1% of its total imports, according to the finance ministry’s trade data.
The U.S. is pushing its allies to buy more of its LNG, including committing to the yet-to-be-built Alaska LNG project. Over recent months, Japan has signed a number of new LNG purchase deals with U.S. producers but has stopped short of any hard deals with the $44-billion Alaska LNG project.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil, additional reporting by Leika Kinara in Washington and Katya Golubkova in Tokyo; Editing by Costas Pitas and Sonali Paul)
