Global food insecurity tops agenda as U.S. assumes UN Security Council presidency

WASHINGTON — The United States connected Tuesday took the helm of the United Nations Security Council for the period of August, a scheduled presidency that comes arsenic the international assemblage grapples with the illness of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

The landmark U.N. brokered cultivation inaugural betwixt Ukraine and Russia fell isolated past month aft astir a twelvemonth successful place, triggering fears of famine successful countries that trust connected Ukraine and Russia for breadstuff and different staple foods.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield slammed Moscow's exit from the woody past month, calling it "another stroke to the world's most vulnerable."

"This is truly different enactment of cruelty," Thomas-Greenfield said successful little remarks up of a U.N. Security Council gathering connected July 17. "This is what it looks similar erstwhile one country decides to clasp humanity hostage. The bottommost enactment is this: The satellite needs the Black Sea Grain Initiative. And each member states must travel unneurotic and impulse Russia to reverse its decision; resume negotiations; extend, expand and fully implement this initiative," she added.

Under the deal, much than 1,000 ships carrying astir 33 cardinal metric tons of cultivation products departed from Ukraine's war-weary Black Sea ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, antecedently known arsenic Yuzhny.

The statement also facilitated the transport of 725,167 tons of wheat on World Food Program ships to immoderate of the astir food-insecure countries connected earth, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

In caller months, however, Russia had grown progressively captious of the deal, claiming it is weighted to favour Kyiv implicit Moscow.

Russia warned that if the Black Sea Grain Initiative did not incorporated fertilizer products into the exports, Moscow would not renew the agreement. Unlike food, fertilizer has yet to depart for planetary destinations.

"That's not the woody we agreed to connected July 22," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during an April 26 briefing.

Following Moscow's departure from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Russian forces rained missiles connected Ukrainian ports and cultivation facilities, sending wheat prices on a three-day spike.

Read more: Russia axes landmark Ukraine atom woody conscionable hours earlier deadline

The diplomatic choreography of assuming the Security Council presidency — mostly seen arsenic procedural — gives the U.S. the accidental to acceptable the docket for debates implicit the adjacent month.

Thomas-Greenfield volition sermon U.S. objectives for the adjacent period during a briefing connected Tuesday. Priorities are expected to see the defence of quality rights and ways to mitigate nutrient insecurity.

She is besides expected to denote a high-level statement connected Thursday that volition beryllium chaired by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The Security Council is made up of 15 members and tasked with the U.N.'s ngo of "maintenance of planetary bid and security."

The presidency rotates each period among the members but lone the 5 imperishable members clasp veto authorization connected immoderate measurement projected earlier the planetary forum.

The U.S. alongside the U.K., China, Russia and France are the 5 imperishable spot holders connected the Security Council. The 10 non-permanent members are elected to two-year presumption by the U.N. General Assembly.

In April, Russia assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, a determination that came connected the heels of the International Criminal Court's determination to issue an apprehension warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged warfare crimes committed during his penetration of Ukraine. The warrant is the archetypal clip the ICC, a assemblage of the United Nations, has taken specified a measurement against a person whose state is simply a imperishable subordinate of the Security Council. 

In April, Russia's ambassador to the U.N. Vasily Nebenzya utilized the forum to beforehand pro-Kremlin narratives during his presidency.

The past clip Nebenzya, presided implicit the assemblage tasked with the "maintenance of planetary bid and security" was successful February 2022, the same month Moscow launched its full-scale penetration of Ukraine. 

Read more: ‘A atrocious joke’: Ukraine cries foul arsenic Russia takes the reins of the UN Security Council

Last year, Thomas-Greenfield led efforts to region Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council. She said astatine the clip that Russia's rank hurts the credibility of the council, "undermines the full U.N. and it is conscionable plain wrong."