India urges global action to protect sea lanes amid food security fears

Unitednations,UPDATED: Aug 26, 2026 07:26 IST

India has called on the international community to work together to protect critical sea lanes, saying secure and predictable maritime trade routes are essential for the uninterrupted movement of food, fertilisers, fuel and other essential commodities.

Speaking at a UN Security Council high-level open debate on Tuesday on food crises in conflict situations, India said the Council’s immediate priority should be to reduce the humanitarian impact of war, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that conflict is driving acute hunger across much of the world.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, said, “Food insecurity remains one of the gravest humanitarian consequences of armed conflict. Today’s conflicts increasingly generate ripple effects far beyond the immediate theatre of hostilities.” He said disruptions to energy markets, fertiliser supplies, maritime transport, humanitarian logistics and agricultural trade have shown how regional conflicts can threaten food security globally, with the heaviest burden falling on import-dependent developing countries.

India said the UN Security Council should focus on mitigating the humanitarian consequences of conflict by facilitating safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access, supporting de-confliction arrangements where appropriate, and ensuring that the Council’s own measures, including sanctions regimes, do not inadvertently hamper humanitarian assistance or legitimate food and agricultural trade.

Underscoring the need to preserve the safety and freedom of navigation for commercial shipping in line with international law, Parvathaneni said, “Secure and predictable maritime trade routes are indispensable for the uninterrupted movement of food, fertilisers, fuel and other essential commodities.” He added, “Disruptions to commercial shipping during conflicts can have cascading effects far beyond the immediate region, disproportionately affecting food-importing developing countries and humanitarian operations.” He said the international community must therefore act collectively to safeguard critical sea lanes and maritime infrastructure while ensuring that legitimate commercial trade and humanitarian shipments move without undue impediment.

Guterres told the debate that 2025 saw not only the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II, but also among the highest levels of global acute hunger on record, with at least 266 million people facing acute food insecurity. He said 2025 also marked the first time this century that two famines were confirmed simultaneously, in Sudan and Gaza, calling it a “shameful milestone”. He added that the UN’s latest Hunger Hotspots report showed conflict and violence were the main drivers in 12 of the 13 hunger hotspots of greatest concern.

Referring to the continuing US-Israel war against Iran, Guterres said the Strait of Hormuz carries around a fifth of global oil supplies and a third of global fertiliser trade. “Restrictions and closures have driven up commodity prices, and made availability plummet. And attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea are further threatening supply chains for food and other commodities,” he said.

India told the Council that food insecurity is fundamentally a consequence of conflict, political instability and underdevelopment, not their root cause. Parvathaneni called for timely assessments of disruptions to critical supply chains, including food, fertiliser, fuel and humanitarian logistics, drawing on the technical expertise of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Food Programme and other relevant agencies. “Such assessments must remain objective, evidence-based and free from politicisation,” he said.

India also said member states, international financial institutions, regional organisations and development partners must work together to strengthen domestic agricultural production, diversify supply chains, improve storage and logistics infrastructure, and promote climate-resilient agriculture. “Predictable and affordable access to fertilisers, quality seeds, technology and concessional finance remains indispensable, particularly for developing countries. Open, transparent and rules-based trade in food and agricultural inputs also remains critical to global food security,” Parvathaneni said.

He also cautioned against “over-reliance” on any single production model, saying such dependence would be counter-productive because of vulnerability to geopolitical disruptions, economic coercion and weaponisation. “We must encourage small and marginal farmers to enhance their productivity and contribute to ensuring food security in developing countries of the Global South. We must also encourage climate-resilient crops such as millets rather than limit conceptions of food security to the biggest staple, grain crops such as rice, wheat and corn,” he said. Overall, India’s intervention stressed that protecting supply chains, ensuring humanitarian access and strengthening resilient agriculture are central to addressing food insecurity during conflict.

With PTI Inputs

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