The European Union is calling for the Black Sea grain model agreed between Russia and Ukraine as the diplomatic method to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, the EU special envoy to the Gulf region Luigi Di Maio told Euronews in Doha on Friday.
“After the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we managed as international community to strike a deal between Russia and Ukraine for ensuring humanitarian corridors in the Black Sea,” Di Maio said in the Euronews interview.
“We have to do the same with the Strait of Hormuz, we have to guarantee the freedom of navigation in the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” he stated, adding that the EU’s High Representative Kaja Kallas called UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres to launch this diplomatic initiative.
Di Maio said that the Strait of Hormuz blockade is “becoming a humanitarian crisis, because it is not only about gas and oil, it is also about fertilisers, about helium, many components and goods are essential even for the agriculture and where the GCC countries are championing as sectors of export.”
“For Europe, even thanks to the investments in resilience after the Russian aggression against Ukraine, there is no problem of quantities linked to fossil fuels,” Di Maio said.
“Obviously, we are affected by the global dynamic of the price, but we see some areas of the world that are more, are suffering more this crisis.”
“This is why we are concerned and we want to work with our friends of the region, but even with the United Nations for a diplomatic solution,” the EU envoy added.
Initially signed in the summer of 2022, the Black Sea Grain Initiative is an agreement between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN that safely allowed the export of grain from Ukrainian ports to world markets, reducing global food prices.
The agreement created a maritime humanitarian corridor, but the initiative was terminated one year later after Russia withdrew its participation and said it would view any vessel bound for Ukraine as a potential military target. However, Ukraine has since established new export routes.
The EU representative to the GCC is on a broad regional tour as the strategic partnership between the EU and the Gulf countries is gaining new momentum four weeks into the Iran war.
From the first days of the conflict, the EU rushed to the defence of the Gulf countries, who were quick to respond by saying “these are the moments when you know your friends,” as Qatar put it.
Di Maio held talks with officials in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Qatar, followed by Kuwait and Bahrain in the coming days.
“The message is first of all solidarity for the unjustified Iranian attacks against the GCC countries; secondly, our member states are supporting the GCC countries, the ones who are requesting support, in particular equipment for self-defence.”
“And third, let’s work together for diplomacy and for the security of the people in the Gulf and the entire region,” Di Maio told Euronews when asked about the EU’s message to the Gulf.
“The security of the GCC is our security”, the EU envoy told Euronews, adding that “our Member States are answering very timely to all the requests and needs of our GCC friends here in terms of equipments and support for the self-defence”.
Di Maio said the EU also supports Ukraine’s defence cooperation with the Gulf countries in stopping Iranian drone attacks.
“We clearly support the ongoing talks between Ukraine and the GCC countries for the technology and for the training because it’s even an opportunity of joining forces against those drones. The same drones hitting Ukraine are now hitting the GCC soil,” Di Maio said.
‘Structured solution to the conflict’
When asked about the reports of Iran-US peace talks, Di Maio said the EU supports “the so-called Islamabad initiative” and that the EU wants what he called “a structured solution to this conflict”.
“We support Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan in this mediation effort. And obviously, as European Union, we hope for the best in terms of diplomatic solution,” Di Maio said, adding that the EU is involved with “connections and messaging to all the actors of this Islamabad initiative in order to support the diplomatic path,” he said.
The EU’s objective is also a stable solution for the future. “This is very important because in the day after this war, we have to work for a solid architecture of security of the Middle East.
Because the security of the Gulf, the security of the wider Middle East is our security. So every structured solution will find the support of the European Union,” the EU envoy said.
“I want to send a clear message to our GCC friends: they will always find the EU on their side along the next weeks and months, hoping for an end to the war very soon”, the EU special envoy to the Gulf countries added.
Di Maio added that over the last year the EU and the Gulf countries have been working together on developing a strategic partnership agreement, but the Iran war has transformed this partnership into an “even stronger opportunity of evolving our security and defence partnership”.
The Qatari foreign ministry echoed Di Maio’s point last week when spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said, “the partnership between Europe and the GCC has proven its worth many times in this crisis.”
In parallel, in an interview with Euronews one week into the Iran war, the Minister of State at the UAE foreign ministry Lana Nusseibeh also hailed the partnership with the EU saying, “the Europeans have been incredibly supportive, because of strong partnerships and relationships that we have invested in over the years with European allies and partners.”
During his visit to Qatar on Thursday, the EU envoy met Qatar’s minister of Defence, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan Al Thani, for talks on joint coordination and defence cooperation, as well as Qatar’s Energy minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi for talks on long-term energy cooperation with the European Union, the Qatari media reports.