Russia is accused of large-scale grain theft when top diplomats from the group of seven rich nations gather in northern Germany for three days of talks on Ukraine’s global impact on food and energy prices.
“This is a particularly disgusting form of war led by Russia,” German Agriculture Minister Cem Oezdemir said on Friday at the start of a meeting in Stuttgart.
Colleagues from the G7 countries, Ukraine, the EU, the OECD and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are all participating.
Russia “stole, robbed, seized grain from eastern Ukraine,” Oezdemir said, describing it as an “economic war.”
Prior to the invasion, Ukraine was seen as the world’s breadbasket, exporting 4.5 million tons of agricultural products per month through its ports – 12 percent of the planet’s wheat, 15 percent of corn and half of sunflower oil.
But with the ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and others cut off from the world by Russian warships, supplies can only travel on congested country roads that are much less efficient.
Urgent
Earlier, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, host of a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, said the conflict had already become a “global crisis” as base crop transport had become entrenched in Ukraine, a major agricultural exporter.
The grain shortage from the war in Ukraine exacerbates food security in Africa
She said that “Twenty-five million tonnes of grain are currently blocked in Ukrainian ports, especially Odesa,” Baerbock said.
“Cereals that are food for millions of people around the world, and that are especially urgently needed in African countries and the Middle East.”
“That is why we are discussing how the blockade of grain imposed by Russia can be unblocked, how we can bring the grain out into the world.”
Baerbock warned that the growing global food emergency situation is further fueled by climate change – another topic that ministers plan to discuss during their meeting in Weissenhaus, a resort on Germany’s Baltic coast, northeast of Hamburg.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the G7 countries were “very strongly united” in their desire to “continue in the long run to support Ukraine’s struggle for its sovereignty until Ukraine’s victory”.
About 3,500 police officers were deployed at the scene to provide security.
The foreign ministers of Canada, Italy and Japan also attended the meeting in Weissenhaus.
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Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland represents the United States. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is recovering from Covid-19 but is scheduled to travel to Berlin for a weekend meeting with NATO foreign ministers.
The NATO meeting will also hear from the foreign ministers of Sweden and Finland, as the two countries are ready to join the Western military alliance amid concerns over the military threat from Russia.
(with cords)