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Putin, Indonesian president focus on global food security, Kremlin says

It is noted that only one ship out of 21 vessels with food that left the ports of Ukraine, headed to Africa, the rest sailed to countries in Europe and Asia

MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin informed his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo in a phone conversation about the efforts Russia is taking jointly with Turkey and the UN Secretariat to stabilize the situation on the grain and fertilizer markets, the Kremlin press service reported on Thursday.

"They discussed global food security. In particular, Vladimir Putin informed [the Indonesian president] about the efforts Russia is taking jointly with Turkey and the UN Secretariat to stabilize the situation on the grain and fertilizer markets," according to the statement.

On August 16, the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul summed up the first two weeks of its work, that is, from August 1 to 15.

According to the center, only one ship out of 21 vessels with food that left the ports of Ukraine, headed to Africa, the rest sailed to countries in Europe and Asia.

The UN repeatedly noted that food exports from Ukraine are carried out as part of commercial operations, their destination is determined by private companies based on their own interests.

The situation in Ukraine and the large-scale sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and the EU have led to disruptions in grain supplies, which raises the risk of a food crisis in a number of countries. Since the beginning of the year, prices for wheat and corn have significantly surged. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov previously stated that the global food crisis had begun long before the start of Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine. In particular it was caused by the pandemic and miscalculations by Western countries, he specified.

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