Countries vow to boost food security amid war

The European Union, the United States and more than two dozen other countries vowed Friday to shore up global food security in a joint statement to the World Trade Organization.

Voicing alarm at the  "global effects on food security" triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, they stressed  "the urgency and importance of maintaining open and predictable agricultural markets and trade". That would  "ensure the continued flow of food, as well as products, services and inputs essential for agricultural and food production and supply chains", they added.

The United Nations has warned the war and economic sanctions on Moscow have disrupted global food supplies, sparking fears of widespread hunger.

"The bullets and bombs in Ukraine could take the global hunger crisis to levels beyond anything we've seen before," World Food Programme chief David Beasley warned back in March.

The conflict, he later told the UN Security Council, would mean  "skyrocketing food, fuel and shipping costs, less food for the starving and even more people going hungry."  Russia and Ukraine, whose vast grain-growing regions are among the world's main breadbaskets, account for a huge share of the globe's exports in several major commodities, including wheat, vegetable oil and corn.