Russia Day: starting point of a new historical phase

Message by Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation

Dear Russian citizens,

My most heartfelt congratulations on the youngest official state holiday, the Russia Day!

The adoption of the Declaration on state sovereignty on June 12, 1990, was the starting point of a new historical phase in the evolution of a distinctive, spanning over more than a thousand years civilizational hearth called Russia.

Today, the whole world has entered another demanding period with new challenges posed by the not yet fully deciphered coronavirus infection. Against the background of a pandemic declared by WHO, we have once again rediscovered not only of the fragility and vulnerability of human life, but also have come to realise the urgent necessity for solidarity, compassion, and mutual assistance that knows no borders.

For the sake of this noble goal, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with the support of its member countries, including Russia, is striving to solve one of the key problems of our time: the final elimination of hunger through sustainable development of the agricultural sector, which feeds the entire population of the Earth and provides sources of livelihood for a significant part of it.

Today, for many countries, the Russian Federation has become an important trading partner that supplies food products. The steady growth of the agricultural sector reinforces this new role of modern Russia.

The positive dynamics in the development of agriculture allows us to count on Russia as a donor and supplier of goods and services for the implementation of one of the main goals of sustainable development, SDG-2: “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” in each country and globally.

In this way, FAO in collaboration with Russia takes care of the most valuable shared asset, common to all of us. This is Earth with a capital letter. And simply the earth proper that is celebrated in the Russian folklore saying: “Mother is benevolent to her children, and the earth is benevolent to all people: good and evil, rich and poor, big and small.”

On this day “of great pitch and moment”, I wish all Russians, all members of a friendly family of peoples inhabiting Russia, its sons and daughters, to enjoy immaculate health, profound happiness and sustainable prosperity!

Happy holidays!

Oleg Kobiakov

Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation