gas, wheat, weapons; What does America benefit from the war in Ukraine?

According to IRNA’s report on Wednesday, Ukraine is spending the fifth month of the war and there is still no will or sign of its end in its vision. The war, which some warn of becoming “long and exhausting”, continues while bringing significant profits to American companies active in the fields of gas, wheat and weapons.

The media recently reported that US gas exports to Europe surpassed Russia for the first time.

Fateh Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, pointed out in a tweet a few days ago the decrease in Russian gas exports to Europe and said that for the first time, US liquefied natural gas exports to Europe have exceeded the total Russian gas exports to the Union.

The publication of this news once again reminded the “geographical-economic opportunity” that the war in Ukraine has provided to America; Taking advantage of the European market, especially in the field of gas.

America and the historical increase in gas exports to Europe

In response to the war in Ukraine, the European Union imposed a series of sanctions against Russia on February 24 (March 5). Of course, in the first sanctions packages, due to the strong dependence of this union on Moscow in the field of energy, there was no news of sanctions in this field. Europe was the destination of half of Russia’s oil exports, 80% of gas exports, and a quarter of Russia’s coal exports.

With the prolongation of the war and the numerous sanctions packages that this 27-member body passed against Russia, it was time to decide on the energy sector. In the sixth package of sanctions, the gradual elimination of oil imports from Russia was included.

Europe planned to increase gas reserves in its underground storages to 90% capacity to face the cold season, but Moscow’s countermeasures in reducing gas exports to some countries and completely stopping them in others, overturned the predictions.

Before the Western sanctions, Russia used to export 150 billion cubic meters of gas through pipelines and 14 to 18 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas to Europe every year, which was equivalent to 45% of the gas consumed by the European Union.

Today, Europe, which is worried about the lack of fuel in the upcoming cold season, is forced to turn to its historical ally to replace Russia’s energy. This need gave America a rare strategic opportunity to increase the export of liquefied gas to Europe at a higher price.

America, which had a 6.6% share in Europe’s gas imports last year, delivered about 5 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe last month alone. Meanwhile, in April of this year, the price of natural gas in the United States reached its highest level in more than 13 years. In this way, American gas is sold to the European Union at a significant price.

Selling wheat to the European Union

But gas is not the only profitable market for the war in Ukraine for America; Another market is food, especially wheat market. Before the war, Russia and Ukraine were the first and fifth exporters of wheat in the world, respectively. However, the economic sanctions imposed against Russia and the conflicts in Ukraine led to a decrease in the exports of these two countries, and as a result, an unprecedented increase in the price of wheat. The price of this grain has increased from 200 euros per ton in April 2021 to 400 euros this year.

The French newspaper “Le Figaro” in a report referring to the US benefit from the food and grain market affected by the war in Ukraine, quoted the US Department of Agriculture as saying: “The demand for purchases from the European Union is still high and this continent cannot meet its needs from imports through Ukraine to provide. In this way, America, the second exporter of wheat in the world, will respond to Europe’s needs the most.

In this way, the sale of wheat to Europe at the new price will bring huge profits to America, which blames Russia for the current global food crisis. A claim that is rejected by Moscow and the cause of the current situation is the economic sanctions imposed by the West.

The war in Ukraine and its endless consequences have led to a widespread food crisis in the world. In the past weeks, some sources warned that with the continuation of the crisis, in the coming months, some African and Middle Eastern countries with heavy dependence on wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine will declare a famine.

Lucrative arms market

Previously, US President Joe Biden said: The cost of this war (Ukraine) is not cheap, but surrendering to aggression has a heavier cost.

In a report on the benefit of the war in Ukraine for the United States in the field of weapons, the Swiss French-language magazine “Le Tan” mentioned these statements and wrote: “Biden knows what terms to use to justify a significant increase in aid to Ukraine, especially in the field of delivering weapons to this country.” And this is while Washington is getting obvious economic benefit from this other.

Le Figaro also raised the question about America’s profit from the sale of weapons in the European market in a report, which country other than the United States, with the largest army, can respond to the weapons needs of the old continent, which is facing a war behind its gates?

German Chancellor Olaf Schultz had previously said in a statement that “the attack on Ukraine has brought us into a new phase”, an issue that justified public opinion for the government’s action of allocating 100 billion euros for the modernization of the army.

This report states: Although Europe has many and diverse defense industries, European countries still look to America to meet their needs. For example, the war in Ukraine forced Germany to buy American F-35 stealth fighters.

According to German Radio, after years of criticism that Germany does not bear enough of the financial burden of NATO, Schultz has promised to spend more than two percent of Germany’s GDP annually on defense, even exceeding the two percent target. NATO to overtake.

Cyril Barre, a lecturer at the University of Political Sciences in Paris, considers the strengthening of Europe’s armaments a positive point, but the “NATO” thinking that has caused European countries to approach the United States is a negative thing for the strategic independence of Europe.

Earlier, the American journalist “Glenn Greenwald” said that this crisis is only for the benefit of the American military industry.

He told Fox News: “It is clear that this conflict is only for the benefit of a small part of the citizens in Washington, the arms manufacturing industry and the employees of the security sector, who gain income and power from such events.”

Greenwald added: This new market for American weapons factories is being created just when the military industry has lost its prosperity and the army forces have come out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

However, by helping Europeans to gain independence from Russia, Washington has strengthened its hegemony and sent huge profits from the European market to American companies. But the benefit of America from the war in Ukraine, which is in its fifth month, is not limited to the European economy and market.

American soft power penetration and NATO development

In a report, Lofigaro newspaper called the increase of American soft power in Eastern and Western Europe as another benefit of the Ukraine war for Washington.

Although Russia stated that the reason for the attack on Ukraine was concerns about the expansion of the “North Atlantic Organization” (NATO), what actually happened and as a result of the fire of war, was the organization gaining more power than before. An organization whose strengthening means increasing the power and military presence of the United States.

Before the Ukraine war, many politicians expressed doubts about the necessity of NATO’s existence considering the end of the Cold War era. Today, however, countries such as Sweden and Finland, which were proud of their neutral position in their historical background, are trying to join this organization.

On the other hand, a country like France, which for years emphasized the necessity of forming an independent European army, has more or less given up its insistence with the outbreak of the Ukraine war and the tendency of allies such as Germany towards the United States, and the formation of an independent European army has practically been sidelined under the shadow of NATO’s rise to power. .