Given the significant reliance on Ukraine’s grain and wheat, Cyprus supports the efforts to reintegrate its agricultural production in the world markets to the benefit of the producing country and the populations most at risk, Cyprus Permanent Permanent Representative to the UN Andreas Hadjichrysanthou said on Thursday, during an Open Debate on Maintenance of International Peace and Security – Conflict and Food Security at the UN Security Council.
He said that our planning must incorporate solutions for a scenario in which food production comes to a halt as a result of conflict, something that cannot be excluded. “Contingency planning could also seek to align grain stocks with country needs, with particular allocations made to existing conflicts afflicted by food crises”, he said a PIO press release notes.
Hadjichrysanthou said also that the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance, whose establishment and work we welcome, could go beyond the task of alleviating the current crisis and extrapolate lessons learnt to create a blueprint for a comprehensive strategy to prevent and tackle similar situations.
“The analysis of the Group that 1.7 billion people live in countries whose economies are severely exposed to at least one of the three crises – food, energy, finance – shows how precarious the global situation is. The fact that a third of these people are already poor and 215 million are already undernourished, points to a particular failure to account for multiple vulnerabilities”, he noted.
Cyprus’ Permanent Representative also said that the challenge before us is two-pronged: hunger that threatens civilians in armed conflict, including as a warfare tactic, and hunger affecting populations beyond a particular conflict situation, due to the disruptions of the food systems caused by that conflict.
“Through its Resolution 2417 in 2018, the Council condemned starvation as a weapon of war, reflecting the relevant obligation of states under International Humanitarian Law,” he underlined.
He went on to say that the conflict in Ukraine, in addition to affecting its own population, has exacerbated food shortages in other conflict and non-conflict situations. “In the first instance, the Council must act to stop this conflict and to ensure that its humanitarian impact on other conflicts is not exacerbated and that the food insecurity it generates does not create new conflicts or unrest,” he concluded.
Source: Cyprus News Agency