India called out the West for its insistence that wheat exports should not be restricted and said it should not go the way of Covid vaccines which were hoarded by the rich countries and accessed with great difficulty by the poorer countries, Trend reports citing The Tribune India.
“It is clear that hoarding and speculation is at work. We cannot allow this to pass unchallenged,” Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan told a ministerial meeting on food security convened by the US at the UN Security Council in New York.
The minister clarified that India’s wheat export ban on May 13 allowed for a case-by-case approval for countries which needed to meet their food security demands. “This will be done on the request from the governments concerned. Such a policy will ensure that we will truly respond to those who are most in need,” he said.
India thus emphasised that its decision to restrict wheat exports would ensure it can truly respond to those most in need.
A few days ago at the UN, the US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield had specifically mentioned India and said, “we’re encouraging countries not to restrict exports because we think any restrictions on exports will exacerbate the food shortages.”
But Muraleedharan pushed back against such expectations by pointing out that a number of low income societies face the twin challenges of rising costs and difficulty in access to foodgrain.