Read-out of the FAO Director-General’s meeting with Costas Kadis, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment of Cyprus

Rome - FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu today met in Rome with Costas Kadis, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment of Cyprus.

The Minister indicated that Cyprus is promoting the transformation to more sustainable and resilient agrifood systems, and highlighted the close alignment with the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31.

The Director-General invited the Minister to use the digital FAO as a platform to share expertise. In that respect, the Director-General mentioned that each country has its own specificities that they can share with other FAO Members.

The Minister indicated that Cyprus is on the crossroads of three continents and has a lot of experience to share, for example on the impact of climate change on sustainable agrifood systems, specifically in the Mediterranean, as well as aquaculture and fisheries management.

In that respect, the Minister also mentioned the announcement by the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, during a virtual Ministerial Meeting on 2 February 2022 with the Ministers of Environment of the countries taking part in the Cyprus Government Initiative to address the impacts of climate change in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East region.

The main objective of that Ministerial Meeting, chaired by Minister Kadis, was to discuss the structure and the content of a Climate Change Regional Action Plan, based on the scientific results of the work of more than 240 eminent scientists from around the world.

The Minister invited the Director-General to visit Cyprus when the final Action Plan will be ratified later this year.

The Director-General mentioned the World Food Forum and the work on science and innovation as a good example of how FAO brings together women and youth from around the world to work on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Director-General further mentioned that FAO as a technical organization has been working since day one on the crisis in Ukraine. He mentioned for example the briefing to the G7 Ministers of Agriculture, the 41-page Information Note issued by FAO on the importance of Ukraine and the Russian Federation for global agricultural markets, and the risks associated with the current conflict, as well as his recent OpEd on the matter and the Ukraine Humanitarian response update issued on 18 March.

The Director-General indicated that FAO is supporting the Global Crisis Response Group, announced by the UN Secretary-General on 14 March, and can play a key role in the effort to bring the UN system together around the issues of food, energy and finance – working with other agencies to transform agrifood systems by providing FAO’s extensive technical expertise.

The Director-General underlined his appreciation for Cyprus’s longstanding support to FAO and the pair agreed to further strengthen their cooperation.