Great to be asked to meet with United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in New York.
ICC has been working together particularly closely since the Secretary General invited the International Chamber of Commerce to participate in the UN Crisis Response Group on the interlinked food, security and finance challenges. ICC was glad to bring to the UN, back in April, the concept and terms of a deal between Russia and Ukraine to keep agricultural trade flowing through the Black Sea to developing countries. (The Black Sea Agreement). Our partnership has led to tens of millions of tons of wheat and other staples to reach vulnerable people all over the world and stabilize food commodity prices. Today, UN and ICC agreed to double our efforts on food security and particularly to resume fertilizer trade from Russia and Belarus so they reach levels required to maintain agricultural production globally and stave off an even more serious food crisis. Importantly, ICC and UN also agreed that no global problem can be solved without meaningful public private collaboration - and therefore that the UN and ICC must do even more together. Our mutual priority now is to bring the insights, ingenuity and innovation of the private sector to generate practical solutions to manage the deepening debt and liquidity crisis spreading across the world. And I look forward to working together on this agenda of critical importance for the continued functioning of the global real economy, and in pursuit of our shared goals of peace and prosperity. Very much appreciate the Secretary General’s leadership and vision in seeing the ICC as a genuine, constructive and effective actor in international affairs.
