Ministers from 40 countries tried yesterday to find, at a conference in Berlin, concrete “solutions” to the food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. Entitled “Unite for global food security”, this conference, in which the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates, is held before the summit of the G7 leaders, organized in Bavaria from Sunday. The conference aimed, yesterday followingnoon, to “propose solutions” such as the acceleration of food exports from Ukraine by alternative routes to the Black Sea, explained to the press the head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, before the opening of discussions.
The exchanges will also focus on increasing aid to the most affected countries, although the event is not presented as a donors’ conference. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, including the blockade of Black Sea ports, is driving up food prices and contributing to the global spike in inflation. Moscow uses hunger “deliberately as a weapon of war” and takes “the whole world hostage”, denounced Ms. Baerbock, warning of a real “tsunami” of hunger that might hit certain countries.
Russia, for its part, denies having blocked the passage of cargo ships and accuses Western sanctions of contributing to the food crisis. “Russia exported regarding as much wheat as the previous year, so the Russian narrative that G7 sanctions are the reason for the rise in world food prices is therefore completely unfounded,” Ms Baerbock retorted on Friday. . According to the environmental minister, Russia can “let the grain out through Odessa or simply stop this war, but we rack our brains to find alternative routes,” she added. These alternative routes might pass through Poland, but “we have the problem of changing tracks (railway, editor’s note), which takes longer,” explained Ms. Baerbock. “This is why we have chosen the route above all via Romania because we can intensify river navigation there”, she continued.
Turkey, for its part, is trying to allow the resumption of grain deliveries via the Black Sea. Quadripartite grain talks between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations might be held in Turkey “in the coming weeks”, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.