Reuters.- The United States said on Friday that it will hold Russia responsible for the application of a UN-brokered deal to resume Ukraine’s grain exports across the Black Sea, denouncing China’s stockpiling of grain that could be used for global humanitarian needs.
Russia and Ukraine are the world’s leading suppliers of wheat, but the invasion of Moscow on February 24 sent food prices skyrocketing, stoking a global food crisis that the World Food Program says has driven some 47 million people into poverty. suffer from acute hunger.
Russia and Ukraine signed on Friday a historic agreement to reopen Ukrainian ports from the Black Sea to grain exports. The war has paralyzed kyiv’s exportsleaving dozens of ships stranded and some 20 million tons of grain stuck in silos.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Washington hopes the deal “will help mitigate the crisis that Russia has caused,” adding that “we will be watching closely to make sure Russia actually follows through on it.” .
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The United States also wants China to help fight the global food crisisJames O’Brien, head of the US State Department’s Sanctions Coordination Office, told reporters.
“We would like it to act like the great power that it is and provide more grain to the poor around the world,” he said.
“China has been a very active buyer of grain and is stockpiling grain… when hundreds of millions of people are entering the catastrophic phase of food insecurity.”
The International Grains Council estimated that the China grain stocks at the end of the 2021/22 season they were 323.4 million tons, more than half of the world total of 607.4 million, and that exceeds the 57.8 million tons of the United States, the world’s leading grain exporter.
“We would like them to play a bigger role, making grain available from their own reserves and allowing the WFP (World Food Program) and others to get grain,” O’Brien said.
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As he said, around 40% of the firsts grain shipments from Ukraine in April headed to china“which was very uncomfortable.”
“It would have been much better if that grain went to Egypt, the Horn of Africa and other places,” he added.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on O’Brien’s remarks.
“We believe it is essential that food, including cereals, goes to all the places where it is needed,” UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Friday.
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