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SZIJJÁRTÓ: COUNTRIES AT RISK OF INSTABILITY FACE FOOD SUPPLY CHALLENGES

 

Several countries “that could easily be destabilised are now facing extraordinary challenges with regard to food supplies” due to severely reduced grain exports from Ukraine and Russia, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in New York on Friday, detailing his talks with the head of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. “If those countries suffer from a permanent shortage of food supplies, extremist ideologies will gain ground involving a threat of terrorism; people will flee from those regions triggering further waves of migration,” he insisted. To prevent such developments, Hungary has contributed 3.5 million dollars to a programme supporting Ukraine’s grain exports, he said, adding that Budapest would also host the World Food Programme’s financial centre. “We are in the 25th hour to prevent the war [in Ukraine] from becoming a global war … it is extremely irresponsible of some powers to reject the possibility of a ceasefire or even supply weapons that will take us closer to a nuclear conflict,” Szijjártó said.