French Foreign Minister Calls for Concerted Efforts to Prevent Global Food Crisis

PARIS (Sputnik) – Countries around the world should pull together efforts to avoid a global food crisis in the light of the situation in Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday.

It is not the sanctions against Russia but the war in Ukraine that is destabilizing the global food security system, the minister said.

“We must take into account this new alignment quickly. Not only we, the Europeans, have to join our efforts, but also, we, the Europeans together with international agencies and with all our partners, including non-profit organisations, to avoid something bigger than the war, that is, a global food crisis,” Le Drian said ahead of an EU foreign affairs council meeting in Brussels.

French Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie said that he would discuss the issues of food security with his Ukrainian counterpart, Roman Leshchenko.

“We will exchange views with our Ukrainian counterpart, the agriculture minister, after lunch to discuss Europe's support for Ukraine, and the situation at the international level, given the risks in terms of food that this war can lead to on European soil, on Ukrainian soil,” he said at a doorstep of an EU agriculture and fisheries council meeting in Brussels.

On February 24, Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine, responding to calls for help from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics in countering the aggression of Ukrainian troops. The Russian Defence Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger.