Russia remains committed to strengthening cooperation with FAO

Moscow has a stake in maintaining Russia’s geographical and thematic priorities within the framework of cooperation with FAO after the impending change of its leadership, Alexey Gordeev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation responsible for agriculture, natural resources and environment, said in an interview to TASS news agency. Mr. Gordeev heads the Russian delegation to the 41st session of the FAO Conference underway at the Organization’s Headquarters in Rome.

On 23 June, Qu Dongyu of China was elected the new Director-General of FAO. He received a total of 108 votes out of 191 cast, constituting a majority in the first round. The FAO Conference (22-29 June 2019) is the highest governing body of the Organization.

Qu Dongyu - currently Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China - will be FAO's ninth Director-General since the Organization was founded on 16 October 16 1945. The term of the new Director-General, who will succeed Brazil’s José Graziano da Silva, will start on 1 August 2019 and run to 31 July 2023.

“It is essential to maintain the non-politicized nature of the work of FAO, which has a broad but limited mandate. The issues of combating hunger and malnutrition in the world, ensuring food security and healthy nutrition, as well as the problems of sustainable development of agriculture should remain at the forefront,” Mr. Gordeyev underlined in his interview.

Russia considers the promotion of sustainable use of soil resources, the fight against the spread of antimicrobial resistance, the development of sustainable food systems, including healthy nutrition at schools, the development of international phytosanitary and food safety standards as FAO’s thematic priorities, the Deputy Prime Minister explained.

“In addition, Russia has been attaching high priority to FAO’s activities in our region - in the countries of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Joint projects with FAO are focused on these countries,” Alexey Gordeev said.

“Of course, we believe it is imperative to use FAO’s potential as a Knowledge-based organization to introduce best practices in the development of our agriculture, including small and medium-sized farms, promotion of Russian agricultural products, as well as seafood products and forestry.”

“We are interested and actively working to further attract qualified Russian specialists to work at FAO’s headquarters and its decentralized offices, including in Moscow,” the Russian Deputy Prime Minister said.