Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called on the international community to cooperate to ensure that the Russian invasion of Ukraine does not further deteriorate the global hunger crisis.
Speaking at a high-level ministerial meeting on "Global Food Security-Call to Action" at the United Nations on Wednesday, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu warned that Russia's aggression in Ukraine poses a significant challenge "as both countries are major global food suppliers and decreasing their ability to produce and export will directly impact global food security."
"We need international collaboration to ensure that this war doesn't worsen the hunger crisis. This is yet another reason why we should end this war and we should work for the peaceful resolution of conflicts," said Çavuşoğlu.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, more than 800 million people currently face hunger, and Çavuşoğlu said conflict is by far the biggest driver of this.
"Around 60% of the world's hungry people live in the conflict zones. Every new conflict pushes a new wave of people into hunger," he added.
In his remarks, the foreign minister noted that a humanitarian approach is at the center of Turkey's policies.
"This is also true for the crisis we face today. We facilitate the U.N.'s humanitarian operations from Turkey, both for staff deployment and the delivery of aid.
"We support the Secretary-General's (Antonio Guterres) efforts to establish humanitarian corridors to ensure food security. Together with the U.N., we are working to ensure the safe passage of Ukrainian ships carrying grain. We are working to establish a contact group on all these humanitarian issues," he added.
Russia's war in Ukraine has negatively impacted energy, food and commodity prices, and it has exacerbated high inflation, causing it to reach record-high levels in many countries.
Russia and Ukraine are both major exporters of wheat, corn, barley and sunflower oil via the Black Sea, and Moscow's invasion of its neighbor has stalled Ukrainian exports.
The disruption in export flows resulting from the Feb. 24 invasion and international sanctions against Russia has spurred fears of a global hunger crisis, especially across the Middle East and Africa, where the knock-on effects are already playing out.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that food and feed prices could rise by up to 20% as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, triggering a jump in global malnourishment.
Meanwhile, the foreign minister also met with the European Union's Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson and his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in New York.
In his meeting with Johansson during his official visit to New York to attend a global forum on migration, Çavuşoğlu said on Twitter that they discussed the fight against "irregular migration & visa liberalization."
Meanwhile, Çavuşoğlu and Zardari evaluated "economic & defense industry cooperation, developments in Afghanistan."
