Turkish-flagged bulker TQ Samsun, carrying grain under UN’s Black Sea Grain Initiative, is pictured in the Black Sea, north of Bosphorus Strait, off Istanbul, Turkey July 17, 2023. (Reuters)
Metropolis Desk-
In a letter obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, the European Union warned underdeveloped nations that Russia is providing cheap grain “to create new dependencies by exacerbating economic vulnerabilities and global food insecurity.”
Josep Borrell, the head of the EU’s foreign policy, wrote to the developing Group of 20 nations on Monday to implore them to speak “with a clear and unified voice” to pressure Moscow to return to an arrangement that permitted the secure export of grain from Ukraine to the Black Sea and to cease attacking Ukraine’s agricultural infrastructure.
In July 2022, the United Nations and Turkiye mediated the Black Sea Agreement to assist alleviate a global food crisis brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Following Russia’s exit from the alliance last month, Ukraine’s ports and grain infrastructure along the Black Sea and Danube River came under attack, driving up grain prices globally.
Russia is now contacting vulnerable countries with bilateral offers of grain shipments at subsidized prices, pretending to fix a situation it created, Borrell said, as the world suffers with disrupted supply and increasing costs.
“This is a cynical policy of deliberately using food as a weapon to create new dependencies by exacerbating economic vulnerabilities and global food insecurity,” he continued.
To fulfill what he described as Moscow’s crucial role in ensuring global food security, Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Russia was prepared to replace Ukrainian grain exports to Africa on both a commercial and assistance basis.
Russia has stated that it might consider reviving the Black Sea Agreement if demands to increase its exports of grain and fertilizer were satisfied. Reconnecting the Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT global payments network is one of Moscow’s top requests. It was cut off by the EU in June 2022.
“The EU has taken every precaution to make sure that sanctions don’t affect the food security of third nations. According to Borrell, there are no restrictions on Russia’s exports of food and fertilizer to other nations.
In addition, he listed some of the efforts that “the EU has been fully committed to preventing over-compliance and de-risking.”
To allow a branch of the Russian Agricultural Bank to recover access to SWIFT, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated last month that UN officials had “recently brokered a concrete proposal” with the European Commission.
That suggestion was left out of Borrell’s letter. To resuscitate the Black Sea grain deal, he declared that the EU would “continue to support the tireless efforts” being made by Turkiye and the UN.
In a letter sent with his EU counterparts on Wednesday, Borrell stated that the letter was written: “to counter Russian disinformation around global food security and the impact of EU sanctions.”
Ahead of the yearly summit of world leaders at the UN in New York next month, he added, EU nations needed to continue to advocate for food security with the rest of the world.
A UN Security Council meeting on famine and the worldwide food insecurity brought on by conflict is scheduled to be presided over by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday.
Source- Arab News
