SAMARKAND, September 16. /TASS/. The unilateral sanctions being imposed by some countries complicate the global food situation, the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) said in a statement on Friday.

"We believe that the world is currently facing major threats in food security. Climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, regional problems and other factors have hit global food supply chains," reads the document published on the Kremlin website following a SCO summit in Samarkand.

According to the document, "unilateral restrictions have aggravated the global food crisis."

The SCO leaders highlighted the contribution their organization had been making to the mechanisms of cooperation in agriculture and food security. The SCO heads of state called on the international community to make concerted efforts with the United Nations playing the central role and to contribute to the work of the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the UN World Food Program.

"We view as inadmissible the imposition of unilateral restrictions that runs counter to international law, including extraterritorial measures that may destabilize global food markets and pose a threat to the long-term socio-economic stability, primarily in developing and least developed countries, as well as the use of grain for biofuels and other factors making global food prices volatile," the statement reads.