India Warns of Coming Food Crisis Amid Ukraine War
India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar warned of an impending global food crisis due to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, exacerbated by a super El Nino.
The minister stated that the wars have had a devastating impact on the economies of the Global South, causing strain on energy, food, fertiliser, and finance.
'If you have energy as a big crunch and then food and fertilisers on top of it, and finance, because every time there's a conflict, money moves towards safe harbours and away from the Global South, the net result of it has been really very, very stressful,' Jaishankar said.
The minister attributed the tight global energy markets to countries 'playing politics' with oil supplies, driving up prices when they should be stabilising. He pointed out that Brent crude is on course for a monthly gain of around 14 per cent, its biggest since July, following US President Donald Trump's denial of easing sanctions on Iran and Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline.