High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell sent a letter to G20 foreign ministers calling them to urge Russia to return to negotiations on the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Agence France Presse reported on Thursday. The group, which counts Russia as a member, will meet for its next summit in New Delhi in September.
Borrell argued that Russia's withdrawal from the deal is in its own interest, according to the report. "Russia will further benefit from higher food prices and increase its own market share in the global grain market by severely limiting its main competitor's capacity to export," he said in the letter. He also claimed that Russia's offer to export grain to poorer countries is "pretending to solve a problem it created itself" and a "cynical policy of deliberately using food as a weapon to create new dependencies by exacerbating economic vulnerabilities and global food insecurity."
