Mr. President,

Mr. Executive Director,

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to start by wishing good health to the Executive Director David Beasley and expressing our gratitude to him and his staff for the firm leadership in addressing WFP’s response to COVID-19.

Russia stands for international solidarity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. We emphasize the importance of the UN and the coordinating role of the WHO in countering the pandemic.

We are against any attempts to politicise the coronavirus issue. Meanwhile, such attempts are not solely limited to the role of the WHO. Accusations, or rather allegations, are also being leveled against specific countries.

Regarding the actions of Russia, I invite delegations to familiarize themselves with the information on the participation of the Russian military medics in containing the Сovid-19 break-out in Bergamo Region (Italy), which are available at the website of our Permanent Mission: rusfao.mid.ru

As far as the joint efforts within the UN system, Russia supports the adoption by consensus of the UN GA Resolution on Global Solidarity to fight the coronavirus disease 2019 (74/270 of 3 April 2020). Meanwhile, in the beginning of April my country in co-sponsorship with 28 other States submitted a draft Declaration of Solidarity in Combating the Coronavirus Pandemic to the General Assembly to reiterate the international community’s commitment to the UN Charter principle of cooperation between States. It contained, i.e. a call to provide assistance to the most affected states, especially developing economies, and to stop trade wars. It also called for the lifting of unilateral sanctions imposed in circumvention of the UN Security Council and to ensure immediate access to food and medicine. Unfortunately, even under the circumstances of Global pandemic, some countries were against the consensus-based adoption of this document.

We appreciate WFP’s tireless efforts to step up its role in order to save lives and minimize the impact of the virus on the most vulnerable populations in collaboration with the UN Sister Agencies.

These particularly refer to the recently presented WFP Covid-19 Response Common Services Plan as part of the Global Humanitarian response plan.
We forwarded it to the Capital and explore the ways and means how
the Russian Side could contribute to the activities proposed by the WFP Plan.

At the same time we would be interested in receiving further clarifications on this Plan from the Secretariat. First of all it relates to the proposed creation of Strategic Consilidation Hubs in Belgium (Liege) and the USA (Atlanta) given the fact that we already have operating Regional UN Humanitarian Response Depots in Brindisi (Italy), Las Palmas (Spain), Accra (Ghana), Dubai (UAE), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Panama (Panama), widely used by WFP, WHO and other UN Agencies. Most recent visits to Brindisi by the Board Members, for example, demonstrated that this Hub doesn’t seem to be very much “overloaded”. Maybe we should first think about strengthening the existing Hubs and work on their effective use? The Hub in Brindisi is in very close location with the United Nations Global Service Centre, covering all the UN Peacekeeping operations around the Globe in real time. In our view, this could strengthen not only WFP, but the whole UN system efforts as part of the Global Humanitarian Response Plan.

Thank you.