Blinken to highlight food security in U.N. meetings

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Fiscal Year 2023 Budget at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., April 26, 2022. Bonnie Cash/Pool via REUTERS

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to New York this week to chair a United Nations meeting on food security and discuss its link with conflict with the Security Council, the State Department said on Tuesday.

Blinken will meet on May 18 with senior officials from 10 countries in Africa and with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Turkey, the State Department said. He will then chair a “Global Food Security Call to Action” at the United Nations, it added.

On May 19, Blinken will chair a meeting of the Security Council that will feature “an open debate focusing on the critical links between conflict and food security”, the State Department said.

After the debate, Blinken will meet with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “to discuss the global response to the acute human suffering in and around Ukraine,” the State Department added.

Reporting by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Stephen Coates

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