On Thursday Croatia and Italy launched the Rome Coalition for Fertilizer Access and Food Security in the Strait of Hormuz at the MED9 meeting in the Italian capital.

The situation in the Middle East is not a distant crisis or just a regional concern, but a major geopolitical shock for Europe that increasingly threatens our stability, economic security and the lives of our people, said Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman at a partnership meeting of the MED9 group, the alliance of European Mediterranean countries that Croatia has chaired since April of this year.

The meeting, co-organized with his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani, brought together representatives of 40 countries, including the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Western Balkans, along with officials from the UN and its Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).