BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union agriculture ministers met Tuesday to debate methods of shifting grain very important to world meals safety out of Ukraine after Russia halted a deal that allowed the exports. At the identical time, they need to shield costs for farmers in nations bordering the war-ravaged nation.
Germany’s agriculture minister, Cem Ozdemir, warned that the ministers should search to steadiness these two points with out eroding the EU’s help for Ukraine within the warfare sparked by final 12 months’s invasion.
If cracks open up in EU unity, “the only one who is happy is Vladimir Putin,” he mentioned.
The ministers met in Brussels for the primary time since Russia pulled the plug final week on the wartime deal that allowed grain to movement from Ukraine to nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, the place starvation is a rising menace and excessive meals costs have pushed extra individuals into poverty.
The deal offered ensures that ships wouldn’t be attacked when getting into and leaving Ukrainian ports, whereas a separate settlement facilitated the motion of Russian meals and fertilizer.
Finland’s agriculture minister, Sari Essayah, mentioned Russia’s ending of the grain deal is “a very serious problem, not only in the EU markets, but it would have some consequences for the food for security all over.”
She mentioned ministers “must make sure that the Ukrainian grain can reach the global markets via EU territory.”
Poland’s agriculture minister Robert Telus was set to inform the EU assembly that his nation, together with Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, are extending their ban on Ukrainian grain imports, however will nonetheless permit meals to maneuver by their nations to components of the world.
Lithuania’s agriculture minister, Kęstutis Navickas, urged that export procedures for grain may very well be shifted from the Ukraine-Polish border to Lithuanian ports as a method of stopping grain from getting caught in Poland and inflicting a provide glut that pushes down costs for native farmers.
Germany’s Ozdemir appeared to help the plan, saying grain from Ukraine may very well be transported in sealed containers to ports within the Baltics.
“I’m sure the friends from the Baltics would be happy to help and then transport to where it’s needed in the Global South,” Ozdemir mentioned.
Over the previous a number of days, Russia has focused Ukrainian important grain export infrastructure because it vowed retribution for an assault that broken a vital bridge between Russia and the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Russian officers blamed that strike on Ukrainian drone boats.
Ukraine is also looking for to proceed exporting grain by sea. It despatched a letter to the United Nations International Maritime Organization establishing its personal non permanent transport hall, saying it will “provide guarantees of compensation for damage.”
But Russia warned it will assume ships traversing components of the Black Sea to be carrying weapons to Ukraine. In a seeming tit-for-tat transfer, Ukraine mentioned vessels heading to Russian Black Sea ports can be thought-about “carrying military cargo with all the associated risks.”
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