Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday warned of a looming global food crisis and said he would discuss amending a landmark grain deal with Ukraine to limit the countries that can receive cargo shipments.
Putin said that Moscow had done everything it could to ensure Ukraine was able to export its grain, but that problems on the global food market were likely to intensify and that a humanitarian catastrophe was looming.
Putin said Russia had signed the deal in July, brokered by Turkey and the UN, on the understanding that it would help alleviate surging food prices in the developing world, but instead it was rich Western countries that were taking advantage of the deal.
Photo: Reuters
“If we exclude Turkey as an intermediary country, then almost all the grain exported from Ukraine is sent not to the poorest developing countries, but to European Union countries,” Putin told an economic forum in the eastern city of Vladivostok.
Putin said only two of 87 ships, carrying 60,000 tonnes of products, went to poor countries, as he accused the West of acting as colonial states.
“Once again, developing countries have simply been deceived and continue to be deceived. It is obvious that with this approach, the scale of food problems in the world will only increase ... which can lead to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.
Putin said he would look at “limiting the destinations for grain and other food exports” and would discuss the idea with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who helped broker the deal to unlock exports from Ukraine’s southern ports in July.
Several top Russian officials, including Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, have said over the past 24 hours that Moscow is not happy with the terms of the deal and that the West is not fulfilling its obligations.
Moscow has said it was promised the removal of some logistical sanctions, which it says disrupt its own exports of agricultural products and fertilizers, in exchange for easing the military blockade on Ukraine’s southern ports to allow food cargo to leave its ports.
Lavrov on Tuesday said that he had seen no steps by the West to ease the situation.
Separately yesterday, Putin hailed “positive” ties with Myanmar as he met with Burmese Army Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
“Myanmar is our long-standing and reliable partner in Southeast Asia... Our relations are developing in a positive way,” Putin said during the meeting on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.
Min Aung Hlaing’s visit comes as both governments face diplomatic isolation — Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine and Naypyidaw for a military coup last year.
As Moscow’s ties with the West unravel over Ukraine, the Kremlin is seeking to pivot the country toward the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
“I am very proud of you, because when you came to power in the country, Russia, so to say, became number one in the world,” Min Aung Hlaing told Putin, as quoted by a Kremlin statement that translated his remarks into Russian.
“We would call you not just the leader of Russia, but a leader of the world because you control and organize stability around the whole world,” he said.
The two leaders “friendly and openly” discussed cooperation and “exchanged views on relations and the international situation,” the Burmese junta said in a statement.
Since the putsch that ousted Burmese State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in February last year, Myanmar has faced Western sanctions and a downgrade in relations.
Additional reporting by AFP
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