US officials raised concerns with Germany after a very public dust-up at this week's G20, according to people familiar with the exchanges. The Treasury Department relayed objections through multiple channels to remarks from Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel. Speaking to reporters in North Carolina, Nagel argued Washington ought to have lined up its approach with Europe ahead of offloading euros to bolster Japan's yen.
Germany's Finance Ministry and the Bundesbank said they had no remarks. The Treasury Department did not provide a prompt response to a request for comment.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent extended an invitation to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov without first conferring with other G20 members, people with knowledge of the situation said.
Klingbeil declined to take part in the customary G20 family photograph with Siluanov, a stance other European attendees supported. In the end, the Russian minister was excluded from the photo op at the final moment, the people said. Shortly after the German delegation departed the gathering, Bessent publicly criticized Klingbeil's conduct in one meeting, saying, "The German finance minister stood up and turned his back when the Russian finance minister spoke." People familiar with the session disputed that account, with one saying Klingbeil directly confronted the Russian minister and pressed him to bring the war in Ukraine to a close.
Tensions were already simmering before the trip. Klingbeil had offered a barely concealed critique of the Trump administration.
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The flare-up fits a wider pattern of US Europe friction that has intensified following Donald Trump's return to the White House, spanning tariffs to Russia's war in Ukraine. Although the US framed economic growth as the meeting's focus, Klingbeil said before the gathering - and echoed in hallway conversations - that conflicts, including the one in Iran, and trade disputes are "poison for the economy," urging all parties to help maintain stable geopolitical conditions. Many read that as a pointed message to Washington.
Bessent also said China blocked a G20 joint communique over a dispute about its large trade surplus, and he weighed in on US trade and financial ties with Japan and Canada at his press conference.
Another flashpoint: press access. Klingbeil condemned Treasury's decision to keep some reporters out of the G20, calling it "unacceptable" to bar "individual reporters" or "entire news organizations," and saying they should be able to report "openly and freely." Germany's Finance Ministry took the matter up through top diplomatic channels to overturn rejected G20 accreditation requests for journalists traveling with Klingbeil, and managed to reverse one of the two decisions. The Treasury Department refused accreditation to multiple news organizations, among them Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal.
Diplomatic spats usually stay in the background until they leak into markets. Arguments over currency plays, Russia policy, and even who gets into the room can muddy coordination and timing. If you track exchange rates or big policy shifts, expect a little more whiplash in how and when officials move and message.
