Feb 15, 2024 - Politics & Policy

Scoop: Daleep Singh to return to White House

Hans Nichols

A middle-age male with a blue suit leans over the White House lectern in a press briefing — Daleep Singh, deputy national security advisor, speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022. Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A key architect of the Biden administration's economic sanctions on Russia is rejoining the White House, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Daleep Singh's return as the deputy national security adviser for international economics will allow him to pick up where he left off in April of 2022 — looking for innovative ways to punish Russia and help support Ukraine.

With a $95 billion foreign aid package stuck in Congress, Biden officials are exploring how they can help Ukraine without Congressional authorization.
One idea that is gaining currency is to use Russia's frozen sovereign assets, which are mostly held in Europe, as collateral for loans to Ukraine.
Belgium has recently floated this idea to G7 countries, but Singh wrote about it back in December of 2022 in Barron's.

Driving the news: Singh, who served in the Treasury Department in the Obama administration, will take over from Mike Pyle, who is leaving at the end of the month.

Singh has been working as the chief economist for PGIM Fixed Income.

The bottom line: The position, which reports to both the NSC and the National Economic Council, is one of the most important in the White House.

As part of the portfolio, Singh will help coordinate the U.S. position at both the G7 and G20 summits.
This year the G7 leaders will meet in June in Italy. The G20 summit is scheduled to occur in Brazil in November. after the U.S. presidential election.

Editor's note: This article has been corrected to note that the upcoming G7 meeting is in Italy, not India.

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Scoop: Daleep Singh to return to White House

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