LONDON — The U.K. will host a global summit on food security in November in a bid to break what it calls Russia’s “stranglehold” on grain exports from Ukraine.
Russia in July pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a U.N.-brokered accord that has allowed Ukraine, a major grain exporter, to continue to ship food in the face of war.
In a release issued as he traveled to the G20 leaders’ gathering in New Delhi, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said world leaders must deal “with the terrible global consequences of [Vladimir] Putin’s stranglehold over the most fundamental resources, including his blockade of and attacks on Ukrainian grain.”
The summit — set for November 20 in London — will be backed by NGOs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Downing Street said. It will aim to “tackle the causes of food insecurity and malnutrition.”
No. 10 said Sunak would use the G20 summit to urge his counterparts to make clear that “Putin’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative has increased Russia’s global isolation and protect those whose lives have been devastated by Putin’s illegal war.”