United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called on Russia to lift the blockade on grain exports from Ukraine. He asked the West to allow Russian fertilizers on the world markets. In this way, the global food crisis can be tackled effectively.
Russia must allow the safe export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports, Guterres said at a meeting of ministers in New York hosted by the United States. At the same time, “Russian foodstuffs and fertilizers must have full and unrestricted access to world markets,” the UN chief said.
Guterres has been negotiating on both issues for several weeks with Russia, Ukraine, the US, the European Union and Turkey, which can help clear mines near Ukrainian ports. “I am hopeful but there is still a way to go. The complex security, economic and financial implications require goodwill from all parties,” he said.
He did not give more details so as not to mortgage the chances of an agreement. “There is no effective solution to the food crisis without re-marketing Ukraine’s food production and foodstuffs and fertilizers produced by Russia and Belarus to world markets despite the war,” he stressed.
Guterres warned of “the specter of global food shortages in the coming months” and stressed that “if we don’t feed people, we are feeding conflict”. He said the war in Ukraine has exacerbated and accelerated the factors contributing to the global food crisis: climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and growing inequality between rich and poor countries.
The crisis “threatens to push tens of millions of people into a situation of food insecurity, malnutrition and starvation” and “could last for years,” he warned. “In just two years, the number of people suffering from severe food insecurity has doubled from 135 million before the pandemic to 276 million today.”
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