Russian MFA Press release on global food security in the context of a statement by the G7 foreign ministers

Submitted on Wed, 05/18/2022 - 11:48

We noted the final statement by the foreign ministers of the G7 countries, whereby they accused Russia of unilateral steps to undermine the agricultural potential of Ukraine and worsen the status of global food security.

In this context, we would like to remind others about the primary causes of the unfavourable situation that is taking shape in the world food markets. The crisis phenomena of the past few years are primarily linked to the miscalculations and accumulated system-wide mistakes in the macroeconomic (including finances and trade), energy (including climate) and food policy of the collective West. The COVID-19 pandemic made a bad situation worse. Its consequences, including the disruption of production and marketing chains, and higher freight and insurance costs, have caused even more turbulence in the world food and other markets.

Moreover, in their statement, the G7 countries contradict themselves. On the one hand, they hypocritically claim that anti-Russia sanctions do not affect the export of prime necessities to the developing nations. On the other hand, they maintain that the West will continue to build up its sanctions pressure on Russia with a view to isolating it from the international financial system and global institutions. Importantly, the unilateral actions by the Western states, primarily the G7 countries, have aggravated the disruption of logistics and financial chains for food supplies to the world markets.

We have to note again that the attempts to alienate Russia economically, financially and logistically from well-established long-term channels of international cooperation are only exacerbating the economic and food crisis. They lead to the fragmentation of international trade and obstruct the recovery of the global economy, which is already suffering from the unceasing waves of the coronavirus, omnipresent inflation and the toughening of credit and fiscal policy by industrialised countries. Under no circumstances will the further fuelling of the anti-Russia sanctions-related hysteria become a stabilising or positive factor for the world economy.