Russia announced some weeks ago that, it has withdrawn from Black Sea deal that, allowed Ukraine to transport its grains to the international markets.
Negotiated by the United Nations and Turkey, Moscow agreed to the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to utilize the Black Sea waters without any military attacks.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres has appealed to the Kremlin administration to return to the negotiation table with regards to the Black Sea grain deal.
He bemoaned that, Moscow decision to pull out from the grain deal will lead to the upsurge of food prices and would worsen the level of hunger among vulnerable individuals. The UN Secretary-General made these comments during his address at a Food System conference in Rome.
According to Guterres, “the most vulnerable will pay the highest price” as a result of the recent failure of the grain deal between Russia and Ukraine. Even without providing any specific numbers, he expressed concerns that, there have been an adverse repercussions on the price of wheat and corn around the world.
Guterres admitted that, both Kyiv and Moscow are very “essential to global food security,” emphasizing that, the two countries make up 30% of global supply of wheats, fifth of all maize, and 50% of sunflower oil.
“For my part, I remain committed to facilitating unimpeded access to global markets for food products and fertilizer from both Ukraine and the Russian Federation and to deliver the food security every person deserves. I call on the Russian Federation to return to the implementation of the Black Sea Initiative, in line with my latest proposal.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres .
The UN leader further admonished the international community to stick together and explore other alternative solution to the problem unfolding.
The grain deal saw a collapse after Moscow announced that, it would not renew its side of the deal. Russia’s decision triggered the collapse of the UN-Turkey mediated deal after series of renewals. Russia however, announced that, until its demands are met, it would not commit to the Black Sea grain deal again.
Moscow has issued an alert that, any vessel that sails through the Russian half of the Black Sea could be subjected to attacks, because it cannot guarantee the security of those vessels.
Grain supplies from Ukraine and Russia have been the major source of Food supply by the United Nations’ World Food Program to famine stricken countries like Yemen, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Sudan. The World Food Program receives and supply in excess of 725,000 metric tons in humanitarian food assistance to these countries.
On the other hand, Beijing has been triggered by the collapse of the Black Sea grain deal. It has also expressed its disgust on Russia’s imminent assault of the Black Sea port of Odessa, in Ukraine. Russia claimed that, the Odessa bombardments were not as a collapse of the Black Sea deal, but in retaliation for the attack of the bridge of Crimea.
Furthermore, discussion on the impact of climate change on food production, would be raised at the Rome Food System conference. According to Corinna Hawks, Head of Food Safety and Food Security at UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization, Rome, the strategies used in growing and producing food weakens food system and also have great impact on climate change.
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