Delegates Walk Out as Russian Finance Minister Addresses IMF Committee in Bangkok

Synopsis

Many participants of the International Monetary Fund's steering committee deserted the session hall on Saturday after Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov spoke in Russian. Reportedly, from almost a dozen to nearly half of the participants departed; those said to have left included British, German, French and Nordic and Baltic delegates. The committee still agreed a chair’s statement. The episode is reminiscent of a walkout in 2022, in which some big economies remained seated.

Reuters' Andrea Shalal and Jan Strupczewski say many of the IMF's steering committee members walked out of an IMF meeting on Saturday when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov started speaking to the group in Russian.

The attendance for this event varied. In the room, a second official reported that almost a dozen delegates walked out, and Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel spoke at a bank event on the sidelines, saying that almost half of the delegates participated in the walkout.

Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan, chair of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), accepted the walkout but noted that the key was that members ultimately agreed to the statement made by the committee’s chair. The group of delegates who had been in attendance at the IMF's steering committee meeting walked out at the moment that a Russian official spoke, sources said.

Who are left?

Those who were expelled were reportedly from Britain, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The Bank of England said Governor Andrew Bailey was one of them ahead of Britain's hosting of the G20 next year.

European officials earlier had required a swap in seating at an official reception on Thursday, as they did not wish to sit at the same table as Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, it reported. The same report noted that the organisers had not allowed for the traditional group photo and called the Russian delegation "the first since the start of the full-scale invasion.

A committee that has no agreement of its members

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has shaken up IMFC, to date not being able to achieve consensus statements. This week’s meetings brought deep divisions again, as new tensions flared between the US and Ukraine. Hence the importance of the statement of the chair, which can be signed even in the absence of a joint communiqué.

A common gesture, divided response

Such walkouts have been seen before. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen led a multi-nation walkout of G20 finance officials in April 2022 when Russia's officials spoke, with Ukraine's finance minister, Sergiy Marchenko, claimed to have been present. Global cooperation “must and will continue”, responded IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

The answer was not so simple as it is now. Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and several other developing nation counterparts did not boycott and at least 50% of the ministers, including Indonesia's, Chinese, Brazilian, South African, Saudi Arabia, did not follow the boycott, reports in Delhi said.

According to the record What is it that the record indicates?

The report does not provide any details of what Mr. Siluanov said and no formal IMF statement on the walkout has been issued as of yet. In the record of the Bangkok meetings, the agreed chair's statement is now next to the half empty room.