Ukraine is in talks to set up food logistics platforms in African countries, the Ukrainian government recently revealed, as part of another initiative to take Kiev’s relationship with Africa to the next level.
This is another initiative taken in recent months by Ukraine, which is using its food surpluses as a humanitarian and diplomatic tool to step up its actions in Africa and combat Russia’s significant influence in the region.
“Our foreign policy must reach a new level with African partners,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message distributed by the country’s Interfax news agency in mid-January.
Emphasizing the importance of Ukraine’s initiative to create food logistics centers in Africa, Zelensky said that African countries “have already felt that the security of different peoples directly depends on the export of Ukrainian food.”
“We want to consolidate this at the level of specific institutions, specific projects” that guarantee food stability, and these projects “will be one of the new foundations of relations between Ukraine and the states of the African continent,” the President of Ukraine said. .
Zelenskiy’s remarks coincided with a visit by his government’s delegation to Senegal, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria in January.
Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solsky, who was a member of the delegation, recently gave an assessment of the visit, in which he assured that “Ukraine’s attention to Africa is now sharper than ever.”
“This will change the nature of relations with these countries”, in which Russia and China are also present, the Ukrainian minister assured at this meeting with the international press, stressing that Ukrainian producers “can sell better, and they (African countries) buy at the lowest price” .
In Abuja, Nikolai Solsky met with Nigerian Foreign Minister Jeffrey Onyaama and his colleague for agriculture and rural development Mohammad Abubakar and the two countries decided to establish a commercial partnership and then open a grain logistics center that intends to serve all of Africa, with Nigeria as the launch pad.
According to Minister Mykola Solsky, a memorandum of understanding was signed with Senegal and a protocol with Ghana, while Ukrainian technicians remain in these countries to continue working, so that later “there would be conditions for the implementation” of projects.
“By the middle of spring we will be able to say more about these projects,” the Ukrainian minister promised.
This initiative complements other programs already underway, the first of which is the “Grain from Ukraine” program, which consists of donating grain to fight hunger in vulnerable countries, namely African countries, which the President of Ukraine announced in November, at the same time as He said that during this year Ukraine intends to open more embassies in African countries.
Ukraine and Russia are major producers and exporters of cereals, supplying, for example, about 44% of the wheat consumed in Africa, according to the UN.
According to the African Development Bank, wheat prices on the continent rose by 60% due to shortages caused by Russia’s five-month blockade of Ukrainian ports, from the start of the war until February 24, 2022, before an agreement that came into force in August 2022. led to a fall in prices in the international market.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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