Read-out of the bilateral meeting between FAO Director-General, and Martin Eyjólfsson, Permanent Secretary of State of Iceland

Rome--Today the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu met in Rome with Martin Eyjólfsson, Permanent Secretary of State of Iceland

The Director-General thanked Iceland for their longstanding support to many areas of FAO’s work, like Fisheries and Aquaculture and the support provided by Iceland through the secondment of a fisheries expert to the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division (NFI) to explore opportunities for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) within the Blue Transformation Programme Priority Area (PPA).

The pair expressed willingness to renew the three-year MoU, signed in 2019, between FAO and the Government of Iceland, that supports the conservation of living marine ecosystems and unlock the potential of world’s marine and freshwater ecosystems.

They further discussed the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food security. In that respect, the Director-General mentioned AMIS as a pivotal tool to enhance food market transparency and policy responses for food security, and the briefing notes and policy proposals provided by FAO to assess the impact of the war on food security and global agricultural markets.

The pair also discussed the effects of the climate crisis for countries like Iceland and agreed that close collaboration to jointly showcase these impacts could help raise more science based global awareness.

The pair further discussed the upcoming UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Lisbon, that seeks to boost much needed science-based innovative solutions. The Director-General and Prime Minister of Iceland will attend UNOC. The Conference calls all stakeholders to invest in transformative and innovative fisheries management, transform and upgrade fish value chains, make aquatic food an indispensable component of food security and nutrition strategies, and ensure the protection of the more than 600 million livelihoods that depend on fisheries and aquaculture.