An agreement was reached on the doubling of Ukrainian grain exports passing through Romania

(Photo: Pixabay)

The participants were looking for an alternative route for Ukrainian food exports in connection with Russia’s drone attacks on the river ports of Ukraine, Reni and Ismail on the Danube, in recent weeks. According to Grindeanu, the Sulina Canal (the middle branch of the Danube Delta belonging to Romania) remains the only usable waterway for Ukrainian goods traffic, and at the same time he also emphasized the importance of Romania’s land – railway and road – infrastructure. The Romanian minister promised that Romania will increase its transport capacity from the current two million tons per month to four million tons in the near future. A

t the press conference held after Friday’s meeting, Oleksandr Kubrakov, the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for the reconstruction of Ukraine, spoke about the series of Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports

He pointed out: since July 17, when the Russian-Ukrainian grain agreement on the Black Sea was terminated, Russia destroyed more than 200,000 tons of Ukrainian grain, an amount that, according to him, would be enough to feed a million inhabitants for a lifetime. The Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister condemned that Russia is trying to use starvation as a weapon. Vladimir Bolea, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry of Moldova, pointed out that the meeting also discussed the development of the railway and shipping infrastructure of his country, as it can bring important progress to the export of the products of both Ukrainian and Moldovan exporters. Currently, Moldavian exporters also take all their goods by road to the Romanian port of Constanta, just like the Ukrainian ones. As he said: any help provided to Moldova also helps Ukraine, and any help provided to Ukraine also helps Moldova. Magda Kopczynska, head of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, stated: the EU condemns the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian port infrastructure, which put lives at risk and endanger the world’s food security by reducing Ukraine’s export capacity. He said: the EU helped Ukraine to export 82 million tons of products worth 33 billion euros and import 29 million tons of products worth 60 billion euros until the end of June 2023 through the solidarity river salts created last May.

According to the EU official, 60 percent of Ukraine’s grain exports were processed through the solidarity corridors

Of these, the route via the Danube and the Black Sea port of Constanta proved to be the “most effective”. In June, the EU awarded 250 million euros in support to Ukraine and Moldova for the development of border crossing infrastructure, he added.

America also made its voice heard

The meeting was represented by Jim O’Brien, the US Department of State’s sanctions coordinator, who pointed out that through the solidarity corridors, through the cooperation of Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, the EU and America, the delivery of Ukrainian grain can be ensured even under the current conditions. to the world market. “We are confident that we will double the amount of grain delivered, tens of thousands of people contribute their work to bring Ukrainian grain to the market. Here we are talking about truck drivers, sailors, port workers, train drivers. This means investments and more jobs, which is good for Romania, good for the Republic of Moldova, it’s good for Ukraine, but above all it proves the power of unity,” said the American official.

MTI