The United States, holding the G20 presidency, closed the foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta on Saturday with a Chair's Statement declaring that food must never be turned into a weapon: "It is important the global community agree that trade in food and agricultural products should not be used as a tool for economic or political coercion."
The statement also stressed the need for "secure, resilient, and uninterrupted energy flows, including safe navigation" through the world's waterways — aimed squarely at the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, where Tehran's blockade, imposed in retaliation for the U.S.–Israel strikes on Iran, has sent world energy prices rocketing.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who hosted the two-day meeting, told reporters the partners were "aligned at least in our goal and our understanding that it's a serious problem, although I cannot say we are aligned on how to solve it." He pointed to food and fertilizer shipments that cannot reach their destinations while sea lanes come under attack, and in his closing message he made clear that critical trade routes including the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandeb must stay open and critical-mineral supply chains must be strengthened.
For American families, this is a fight over the price of food and fuel: every blocked sea lane pushes up what households pay at the store and the pump, which is why the United States used its chairmanship to put food weaponization and energy flows at the top of the agenda days before the midterm elections. The Atlanta meeting was the last high-level G20 gathering before the leaders' summit at President Trump's Doral resort in Florida in mid-December.
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