The Group of Seven major economies warned on Saturday that the war in Ukraine was creating a global food and energy crisis threatening poor countries and that urgent measures were needed to unlock grain reserves that Russia is preventing from leaving Ukraine.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who hosted the G-7 summit, said the war had turned into a “global crisis”.
She said up to 50 million people, especially in Africa and the Middle East, would face starvation in the coming months if ways were not found to unlock Ukrainian wheat, which makes up a significant portion of the worldwide supply.
In statements issued at the end of the three-day meeting on the German shore of the Baltic Sea, the G-7 pledged to provide further humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable.
“Russia’s aggression has generated one of the worst food and energy crises in the history of recent decades, which now threatens those in the most fragile positions across the globe,” the Group of Seven said in a statement.
“We are committed to accelerating a coordinated multilateral response to safeguard global food security and to stay close to our most vulnerable partners in this regard,” the statement said.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said her country, another major agricultural exporter, was ready to send ships to European ports so that Ukrainian wheat could be sent to those in need.
“We have to make sure that these grains are sent,” she told reporters. “If not, millions of people will face famine.”
Russia has denied that it was responsible for worsening global hunger and rising food prices.
“Prices are rising because of sanctions imposed by the West under US pressure,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
The G-7 countries also called on China not to help Russia, including undermining international sanctions or justifying Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
Beijing should support Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence, not “help Russia in its aggression,” they said.
The G-7 urged China to “abandon its commitment to manipulating information, misinformation and other means to legitimize Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.”
The group, which includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, also reiterated its position that territories occupied by Russian forces should be returned to Ukraine.
“We will never recognize the borders that Russia has tried to change through military aggression,” they said.
The meeting in Weissenhaus, northeast of Hamburg, was hailed as an opportunity for officials to discuss the wider implications of the war on geopolitics, energy and food security, and ongoing international efforts to tackle climate change and the pandemic.
In a series of concluding statements, the G-7 countries also addressed a wide range of global issues from the situation in Afghanistan to tensions in the Middle East.
On Friday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on friendly countries to provide more military support to Kiev and increase pressure on Russia, including seizing its properties abroad to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Kuleba said his country remained ready to talk to Russia about unblocking supplies of grain stuck in Ukrainian warehouses and also about reaching a political agreement to end the war itself, but so far had not taken ” no positive reaction “from Moscow.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview published Saturday that he had not seen any change in President Putin’s stance recently.
Scholz, who spoke at length on the phone with the Russian leader on Friday, told a German t-online news portal that Putin had failed to achieve the military objectives he had set at the start of the war.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not attend the G-7 summit but is expected to attend the NATO summit on Sunday./VOA
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