Global Consequences of War: "If You Have a Heart, Open the Ports"

In a dramatic appeal, David Beasley addressed Vladimir Putin directly: "If you have a heart, open the ports," the director of the World Food Program (WFP) called out to the Russian president.

Grain production in Ukraine can feed 400 million people.

His UN organization alone, the WFP, buys 50 percent of its stock in Ukraine.

The silos are full, but the grain does not come from the country because Russia is blocking the Black Sea ports.

In this way, 25 million tons of wheat do not reach the world market.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken invited 35 countries to a ministerial conference on food security at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday afternoon.

Of course, Russia was not represented.

The debate in the UN Security Council is scheduled to continue on Thursday.

There the signs pointed to a political confrontation.

The ministerial conference, on the other hand, was about preventing the worst famine in decades.

44 million people on the brink of starvation

Blinken outlined the situation at the beginning: climate change, droughts and supply shortages as a result of the pandemic had already threatened 160 million people with a food crisis before the Russian war of aggression.

44 million people in 38 countries are on the brink of starvation.

There are estimates that another 40 million people are at risk of starvation by the end of 2022 as a result of the Ukraine war.

Blinken announced that he would make Russia's responsibility in the Security Council clear, taking the wind out of Moscow's sails preemptively: The Russian narrative, according to which the food crisis is a consequence of the sanctions aimed at Russia, has nothing to do with reality.

Exceptions were deliberately created for the agricultural sector.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was clearer than Blinken: Russia is waging its "brutal war" not only with tanks, rockets and bombs, but also with another "terrible but quieter weapon: hunger and starvation".

Moscow has ignited a "grain war" by blockading Ukrainian ports, destroying silos, roads, railways and farmland.

Moscow is waging this war even though millions of people in Africa, Asia and the Middle East have long been threatened with hunger.

She also called for people not to fall for the Russian disinformation: there are no sanctions, not a single sanction, against grain or fertilizer transports.

Several Western countries have announced that they will provide financial support to aid organizations.

Germany will spend a total of four billion euros on food security, said Baerbock.

Blinken previously announced $215 million in direct aid;

he is also confident that Congress will decide on a five billion dollar package.

Further steps are necessary: ​​there should be no market foreclosure during the crisis.

Fertilizer production must also be ramped up.

America's going to do that, Blinken said.

India, which is currently suffering from a heat wave like other parts of South Asia, recently imposed a wheat export ban.

The world's second largest wheat producer after China, which mainly produces for its own market, actually wanted to export ten million tons of wheat.

However, due to the heat wave, the country had to revise its expected crop production downwards.

With the export ban, Delhi now wants to prevent a further rise in prices on the domestic market – but is exacerbating the situation on the world market.

Partners as Co-Chairs

Blinken had chosen an unusual format for the conference: the host of the ministerial conference deliberately did not invite to Washington, but to the United Nations in New York.

The idea behind this was that the American government sees the UN as having particular responsibility for the food crisis: Russia's veto power in the Security Council is blocking diplomatic initiatives to end the Ukraine war.

After the start of the war of aggression, a resolution was passed in the General Assembly calling for the unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops.

The body, which Moscow has no power to block, also decided to suspend Russia's membership of the Human Rights Council.

Otherwise, according to Washington's analysis, the UN is politically paralyzed.

The contribution is all the more important

The American side stressed that it reaffirmed "the crucial role" that the UN system and its partners play in dealing with the crisis.

The United Nations is the ideal venue for the Global Food Security Call for Action.

Washington brought partners on board as co-chairs: Germany, which currently holds the G-7 presidency, Indonesia, which currently chairs the G20, Senegal, which holds the presidency of the African Union, and more.

Many of the countries that were hit hardest by the food crisis were also invited: Yemen, Lebanon, Nigeria and Zambia.

Aissata Tall Sall, the Senegalese Foreign Minister, made it clear that the international community must act together.

Africa will be hit hard by the food crisis - due to the lack of food, but also due to the rise in prices.

"We need to curb inflation," she said.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres was somewhat optimistic.

There is no solution to the global food crisis without Ukrainian grain on the world market.

Guterres, who was recently in Moscow, said he was confident there would be a solution.

However, he did not want to talk about details so as not to jeopardize a possible agreement.