The attacks on the border in the Spanish enclave of Melilla and the resumption of the landings of hundreds of migrants on the Italian shores could only be the spark of a bonfire that can flare up due to the instability that is spreading from north to south today due to the war in Ukraine. The game of freeing up Ukrainian ports is central to averting the risk of famine in African states most dependent on grain from Kyiv, which could lead to Arab Spring-like unrest and political instability.
Today, according to experts, all the conditions are in place for the Mediterranean to turn from the cradle of civilizations and cultures into a menacing sea, a harbinger of “destabilizing currents”. Not just people, but guns, drugs, smuggling, terrorism. In short, as the world looks on to the threats from the East, there is a continent poised to explode under the pressure of hunger, poverty and climate change. A threat, according to the ambassador Giampiero Massoloa diplomat, former director of Dis and president of the Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), grew up with the United States’ progressive detachment from the so-called broader Middle East.
A “destabilizing” trend, accompanied by the ongoing “West self-contortion” accentuated by the pandemic. “The French case with the loss of importance in Mali and Algeria is just as symbolic as the German shyness and the absent-mindedness of the British on Brexit,” emphasized the diplomat to the members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. An attitude that has powers as allowed China, Turkey and like Russia itself to gain ground on the south coast of the Mare Nostrum. “Moscow has been present in recent years – Massolo explained at the hearing in the Madama Palace – where the West has given it space and where it has been able to make a difference with minimal resources, such as in Syria, Libya and Mali, and will continue to do so do. “.
The economic fallout from the conflict in Ukraine now risks further destabilizing Africa, with the result that “migration flows different from the ones we have managed so far”. And therefore difficult to control. The energy crisis is also a factor: for producing countries, the increase in the price of hydrocarbons will be an advantage, for others another weak point. of investment 600 billion dollars for infrastructure, announced at the German G7 in response to the Chinese “Silk Roads” are a step forward, but we will need to develop more effective policies, ranging from partnerships with the countries of origin of the flows, promoting culture and investment.
Attention from Europe and the West, which, the ambassador emphasizes, should no longer be “episodic” but should become “zealous”. The EU must do its part to “mitigate the discrepancies between the member states and put a stop to nationalist pressure”. And then multiply efforts to prevent the situation from deteriorating and reach an agreement as soon as possible to lift the blockade ports. Not to mention, the diplomat emphasizes in an interview with ilGiornale.it, “that the mechanism of a possible agreement between Russians and Ukrainians, mediated by the UN and one or more guarantor powers, could represent a scheme that needs to be repeated in order to finally reach a to achieve a ceasefire”.
In this regard, the departure of a merchant ship carrying 7,000 tons of grain from the Ukrainian city of Berdyansk, which was occupied by the Russians on Thursday, along with Moscow’s announcement to withdraw troops from Snake Island “could not hamper United Nations efforts to liberate Ukrainian food exports”. be positive signs that an agreement can be reached within a reasonable time.
“Immigration is a complex problem and must therefore be tackled in its various aspects: there are political refugees that have to be taken in, economic migrants that our labor market can partially absorb and uncontrolled immigration,” explains the Commission President. Stefanie Craxi, from Forza Italia, at the end of the hearing. “On the one hand – continues the senator – we must work on the development of the coastal countries so that they can accommodate the labor force tending to flee, and on the other hand we must count on this work being done with a careful and precise strategy on the part of all of Europe, both in terms of hospitality as well as the development of the countries from which migrants leave for lack of opportunities.