Some leave, and others arrive. He Ukrainian Government has offered in recent hours to fill the gap that Russia could leave in Syria’s food supply. Vitaliy KovalMinister of Agriculture, has expressed the Slavic country’s willingness to “supply” its food to the Arab state if it was “necessary”, shortly after two Russian merchant ships that had planned to unload grain in Syrian ports gave up their objective and headed to other ports. In parallel, the European Commission has announced the opening of an airlift to deliver tons of emergency health aid and essential supplies.
“I think that no one is going to dare to supply wheat to Syria under the current circumstances,” a Russian source close to the Government admitted to Reuters. Of the two vessels mentioned, one, the ‘Alpha Hermes’140 meters long, had already found an alternative market for its cargo and was sailing this Friday towards the port of Alexandria, in Egypt. The second, ‘Mikhail Nenashev’170 meters long, remained detained halfway between the Syrian coast and the island of Cyprus.
The close alliance between the deposed regime of Bashar al-Assad and the Kremlin It included food supplies, thanks to Russia’s status as one of the world’s leading agricultural powers. The institution in charge of procurement in the Arab country was the so-called General Establishment for the Processing and Trade of Cereals (Hobob), although to avoid sanctions, procurement was carried out through a network of intermediaries. With the arrival of new authorities to power in Damascus, it is unknown if this institution will be maintained, or if a new body in charge of this essential trade will be created. According to a local source told the British news agency, the lack of payment opened the possibility that the charge, consisting of 66,000 metric tons of wheat between both vessels, was resold to a different buyer.
Strengthen relationships
The loss of the Syrian market would not constitute any cataclysm for the Russian agricultural industry. In the current financial year, you have received 300,000 tons of wheatoccupying 26th place in the Russian list of clients. For Syria, that is a different matter, given that the war has significantly reduced its cproduction capacityestimated at four million tons per year. “Where there is difficulty, we have to be there with our food; we are ready to supply it if Syria needs it“, Koval told Reuters. The gesture is part of a general desire of the kyiv authorities to strengthen relations with the new rulers of Syria: “We are prepared to pave the way and allow the full restoration of our relations and reaffirm our support to the Syrian people,” proclaimed Andriy Sibyha, Ukrainian Foreign Minister.
Similar attitude, although with greater dose of prudencehave adopted los 27. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenhas assured that the collapse of the Damascus regime offers “new hope to the Syrian people.” And he justified the European decision to establish a humanitarian bridge due to the “risks and difficulties” of “this moment of change.” In a first delivery, 50 metric tons of stocks of medical supplies stored in Dubai will be sent and transported by air to Adana airport, in southern turkey. A second load of 42 tons It will be transported from Denmark to the same airfield and later distributed by UNICEF. Von der Meyer plans to travel to the Anatolian country next Tuesday to deal with the local authorities the distribution of aid.
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