LAHORE MIRROR (Monitoring Desk)– Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations vowed on Saturday to reinforce Russia’s economic and political isolation, continue supplying weapons to Ukraine and combat what Germany’s foreign minister described as a “wheat war” b0eing waged by Moscow.
After meeting at a 400-year-old castle estate in the Baltic Sea resort of Weissenhaus, senior diplomats from Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United States and the European Union also pledged to continue their military and defense assistance for “as long as necessary.”
“Have we done enough to mitigate the consequences of this war? It is not our war. It’s a war by the president of Russia, but we have global responsibility,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters at a closing news conference.
The key to putting more pressure on Russia is to ban or phase out buying Russian oil with EU member states expected next week to reach an agreement on the issue even if it remains at this stage opposed by Hungary.
“We will expedite our efforts to reduce and end reliance on Russian energy supplies and as quickly as possible, building on G-7 commitments to phase out or ban imports of Russian coal and oil,” the statement said.
The ministers said they would add further sanctions on Russian elites, including economic actors, central government institutions and the military, which enable President Vladimir Putin “to lead his war of choice.”
“People will be dying in Africa and the Middle East and we are faced with an urgent question: how can people be fed around the world? People are asking themselves what will happen if we don’t have the grain we need that we used to get from Russia and Ukraine,” Baerbock said.
She added that the G-7 would work on finding logistical solutions to get vital commodities out of Ukraine’s storage before the next harvests.
Attention now turns to Berlin as ministers meet later on Saturday with Sweden and Finland gearing up to apply for membership of the transatlantic alliance, drawing threats of retaliation from Moscow and objections from NATO member Turkey.
“It is important that we have a consensus,” Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters when asked about Turkey possibly blocking their accession.
Putin calls the invasion a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and its allies say Russia launched an unprovoked war.
“More of the same,” EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters. “The one thing that is missing is pushing for a diplomatic engagement to get a ceasefire. It is missing because Vladimir Putin has been saying to everybody that he doesn’t want to stop the war.”
SOURCE: CNBC
