Global leaders called Tuesday for urgent efforts to address global food
insecurity amid fears of disastrous harvests next year, as Ukraine's president
blamed Russia for the crisis and sought the world's "toughest
reaction" against Moscow.
اضافة اعلان
On the sidelines of the
United Nations General Assembly, ministers from the
European Union, United States, African Union and Spain met on food shortages
which are seen as a key factor in conflicts and instability.
Appearing by video link was Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, who directly
accused Moscow of willingly triggering a food crisis.
"Any state that provokes famine, that tries to make access to food a
privilege, that tries to make the protection of nations from famine dependent
on... the mercy of some dictator -- such a state must get the toughest reaction
from the world," Zelensky said.
He blamed Russian blockades and other "immoral actions" for
slashing exports from Ukraine, a major agricultural producer.
"Russia must bear responsibility for this," he said.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Russian President Vladimir Putin,
with his February invasion of Ukraine, "is trying to blackmail the
international community with food."
"There is no peace with hunger and we cannot combat hunger without
peace," Sanchez said.
The Group of Seven major industrial powers at a June summit in Germany
promised $5 billion to fight food insecurity but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
said there was still "great urgency."
"The Russian war of aggression has caused and accelerated a
multidimensional global crisis. Countries in the Global South with prior
vulnerabilities have been hit hardest," Scholz said.
President Joe Biden will address the General Assembly on Wednesday and
announce new US aid, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
In his own address Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said his
country will finance shipments of Ukrainian wheat to Somalia which is facing
risk of famine.
Ukraine is one of the world's largest grain producers and the Russian
invasion sent global prices soaring.
Russia has cast blame on Western sanctions, an assertion denounced by Washington
which says it is not targeting agricultural or humanitarian goods.
Turkey and the United Nations in July brokered a deal between Russia and
Ukraine to allow ships with grain to sail through the blockaded Black Sea.
Putin has recently criticized the deal, pointing to shipments that have
headed to Europe. US officials say some of the grain is then processed and sent
to poorer countries.
"Despite some of the misinformation that continues to come from Moscow,
that grain and other food products are getting where they need to go to the
countries most in need, predominantly in the Global South," Blinken said.
"It's also helped lower food prices around the world. So it needs to
keep going, it needs to be renewed. That is urgent."
- Long-term fears -
Concerns are also mounting on the long-term impacts. A recent report by the
Ukraine Conflict Observatory, a non-governmental US group, found that around 15
percent of Ukraine grain stocks have been lost since the invasion began.
And experts warn that disruptions in fertilizer shipments could seriously
impede future harvests worldwide.
"It's very clear that the current food supply disruption and the war in
Ukraine is having an impact on the next harvest," said Alvaro Lario,
incoming president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
"There's one or two harvests per year, and already we're seeing that
it's going to be devastating for next year," he told AFP, warning that the
impact could be "much worse" than Covid.
He called for longer-term action, which would entail billions of dollars of
investment, to ensure stability of food supply chains and adapt to a warming
climate.
"We know the solutions and we have the institutions to make that
happen. What is currently lacking is the political will, in terms of the
investment," he said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said recently that the world had
enough food in 2022 but that the problem was distribution.
If the situation does not stabilize this year, in 2023 "we risk to have
a real lack of food," he said.
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