2023-07-18 18:59:00
For Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin has made food “a weapon”. The French president ruled on Tuesday that his Russian counterpart made “a huge mistake” by ending Moscow’s participation in the agreement on the export of Ukrainian cereals.
“He decided to make food a weapon (…) I think it’s a huge mistake”, declared Emmanuel Macron, who spoke in English, after a summit in Brussels between the leaders countries of the European Union and Latin America.
Ending the grain agreement shows that “the king is naked, not to say the tsar”, added the head of state in another response, in French. “We see very clearly that Russia has decided (…) to starve countries already in difficulty,” he insisted.
Risks of shortage
Russia on Monday signified its refusal to maintain the cereals agreement signed in July 2022 under the aegis of the United Nations and Turkey, and since extended several times, denouncing the obstacles to trade in fertilizers and other Russian products. In one year, this agreement had made it possible to remove nearly 33 million tonnes of cereals from Ukrainian ports, mainly corn and wheat, helping to stabilize world food prices and avert the risk of shortages.
“The land routes that we Europeans have been able to secure since the start of the crisis, which already represented 60% of the transit and exit of cereals, are important and we will continue our effort”, continued the French president. .
Moscow’s refusal to extend this agreement has been denounced by several Western heads of state and by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, according to whom “hundreds of millions of people face hunger” and go to ” pay the price”.
On Tuesday, Moscow accused Ukraine of using the sea corridor opened under the deal “for military purposes”, after Kiev struck the strategic bridge connecting Russian territory with the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea the day before. .
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