Food security is now top of our agendas since Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine: UK at the UN
Statement delivered by Victoria Prentis MP, Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at the UN Ministerial Meeting on Global Food Security
We are so grateful to the US for leading this week of action.
Food security is now at the top of all of our agendas, since Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine.
皇冠体育app effects of the war are brought home to me daily by the 25 year old Ukrainian woman who has come to live in our home. When we can find some phone signal, we talk to her grandparents, who are in occupied Kherson, about their daily struggles to find something to eat.
Famine is once again being used as a weapon of war.
This doesn鈥檛 just affect the brave people of Ukraine.
Ukraine鈥檚 food and fertiliser exports were feeding up to 400 million people worldwide.
皇冠体育app simplest solution is, of course, for Russia to end the conflict and allow Ukrainian farmers to care for their crops this year.
We must urgently make multiple plans to export last years鈥� grain by both rail and sea. And I know that my friend, Minister Solsky, is full of solutions in this regard.
We must collectively ensure that trade keeps flowing.
I am pleased that over 50 WTO members have committed to keeping food markets open, predictable and transparent. We should agree to prohibit export restrictions on food bought for the World Food Programme.
皇冠体育app G7 has a key role to play. Under our Presidency we secured the first ever famine prevention compact. I am delighted that Germany is now picking up the baton and taking this further with the Global Alliance on food security.
We must all, including multilateral institutions, scale up our support.
Over the next 3 years, the UK will send 拢3 billion worth of humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable countries, including in the Horn of Africa, Yemen and Afghanistan.
And the World Bank must deliver the promised $170 billion over the next 15 months.
We particularly think of small island developing states, who are so reliant on imports.
We will continue to use British Investment Partnerships around the world to encourage the universal resilience of global food production.
皇冠体育app need is urgent. We must act coherently and together, and, as they sing in the Ukrainian national anthem, 鈥榖efore the dew dies in the sunshine鈥�. And, we need to ensure that the way we produce food remains sustainable in every sense.