Di Maio at the UN summit: “We risk the world war on bread”
NEW YORK. Activate humanitarian corridors to allow the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports and prevent the outbreak of the First World War on bread. In summary, this is the objective of the ministerial summit organized by the United States on food security that was held yesterday at the United Nations: Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken were also present.
«The price of wheat is continuing to rise due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and could rise by 20% by the end of the year. The work we are doing is to build together a safe corridor to allow Ukrainian wheat to return to the market ”, explains Di Maio, fearing the risk of a“ world war on bread that we must stop as soon as possible ”. Which would have the main indirect effect of increasing migratory flows. “We have to avoid this,” says the head of the Farnesina.
The latest worrying data saw the price of durum wheat record a 4.6% increase. Soft wheat also rose sharply, up by 5.48%. And fears in Europe are mounting, especially after India’s decision to ban wheat exports. The German counterpart Annalena Alma Baerbock acts as a bank for Di Maio: «Moscow is not only cynically accepting famines and food crises in the southern hemisphere, it is using hunger as a weapon to ask for loyalty. Germany – she added – is involved in the work group led by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to overcome the crisis ».
On Tuesday it was the American ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield who anticipated the existence of contacts to unblock the humanitarian food corridors: “We know that the Russians have undermined the coastal stretches of the Black Sea, preventing ships from proceeding in or out , this is a topic that Guterres has addressed with Moscow, while at the same time thinking about how we can work to bring to the market part of the product available in Ukraine »said the ambassador. Ukraine was the “bread reserve” for developing countries, with the World Food Program (WFP) buying 50% of its wheat from Ukraine, “but since Russia started blocking access to ports by destroying civilian infrastructures and grain silos, the food situation in Africa and the Middle East is becoming even more serious ”.
Di Maio also commented on the other major economic dossier linked to the conflict, that of energy. The EU – says the head of Italian diplomacy – must have the courage to impose a ceiling on the price of gas. “The war could last over a year, there is no perception that it will end soon – he warns -. But it depends on the EU, the gentle force of the world. For Italy there must be three fundamental objectives: peace, energy, food security ».
The wheat crisis is therefore one of the dossiers on which there appears to be a channel for dialogue between the United States and Russia, which however remains “circumscribed and limited” to that topic as to others included above all in the spectrum of humanitarian issues, UN sources explain. According to which one thing is the targeted and limited dialogue, another is a negotiation between the US and Russia for peace. However, this does not exclude opportunities for contact between Washington and Moscow that go further. “Our goal is a diplomatic solution to the conflict, leaving the channel open with Moscow and reaching a ceasefire”, warns Di Maio, stressing that he spoke with Guterres about the actions to achieve peace such as the evacuations and the release of the military from Azovstal .
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