Fighting global hunger
The world is lagging behind in achieving the SDGs for ending poverty and hunger. Figures on hunger and malnutrition cited by United Nations аgencies are gruesome and shocking, especially on some 50 million people, primarily in the Sahel, the Gaza Strip, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria, who are at the brink of starvation. The situation in Gaza remains the most serious, with its population almost entirely underfed.
Against this background, the collective West is still pursuing its disinformation campaign and tightening up its clampdown on Russian food and fertilizer supplies to developing countries in need, while seeking to conceal the underlying real causes of the negative trends, namely their own financial, economic and energy blunders and miscalculations. Rampant sanctions, protectionism and Western interference in supply chains only increase distortions in markets and price volatility.
Russia continues to fulfill, responsibly and in good-faith, its contractual obligations to export food, fertilizers, energy and other critical products. The leadership of the country understands how important they are for the social and economic development of countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, as well as for achieving food security targets and the SDGs. In 2023, Russia grain exports amounted to 80 million tonnes, including 55 million tonnes of wheat, almost 60% increase on 2022. Russian companies accounted for a quarter of global wheat exports. The Russian government aims to boost production in its agricultural sector by at least 25%, and exports – by 50% by 2030 as compared to 2021.
However, illegitimate impediments created by the West for Russian economic operators (trade restrictions, denial of access of Russian ships to European ports, prohibition of insurance and financial transactions) are hampering global food security and slow down progress towards sustainable development.
Russia acts as a responsible and reliable donor donating – as part of Presidential initiative – tens of thousands of tonnes of Russian fertilizers (seized in European ports) and grain to a large number of African countries, including Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Mali, Somalia, Zimbabwe, etc.
The Russian Federation overfulfills its commitments under the Food Assistance Convention having donated 50 million US dollars to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) alone in 2023 for food assistance to LDCs and other developing countries. Ensuring food security for the sake of global development is a task of the utmost importance for the Russian foreign policy.
[The text is the abstract from the statement by Alexandr Pankin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia at the G20 Ministerial Meeting of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty].