United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has revealed that in the United States alone, fentanyl killed more than 70,000 people last year becoming the number-one killer of Americans aged 18 to 49.
Blinken made this known in his remarks during G20 event in India on Thursday, while discussing ways to counter the proliferation, trafficking of illicit synthetic drugs, like fentanyl and methamphetamine.
According to him, “No country can tackle problem of drug trafficking alone. Disrupting supply chains of precursors, preventing the diversion of legal chemicals to illegal uses, dismantling the transnational criminal groups that foster corruption.
“And profit off of others’ suffering, these are challenges that demand coordinated global effort. That’s why it’s important that, for the first time, G20 ministers called for a strong, international cooperation to counter illicit synthetic drugs”.
He proposed to his fellow ministers at the G20 that they should create a focused line of effort to bring together governments, international and regional organizations, private sectors, and others to tackle this problem.
“This is a law enforcement and security issue, but it’s fundamentally a public health issue, an increasingly global one”, Secretary of State said.
Blinken stated that the G20 came together to focus on solving some of the most consequential problems affecting people of the nations and the world while thanking their host, India, for setting out an ambitious agenda, and for its presidency of the G20.
He further explained that the G20 met roughly one year after Russia’s President Putin launched his war of aggression on Ukraine, and one week after 141 countries voted in United Nations General Assembly for a resolution that expressed the support for a lasting peace.
“In accordance with the United Nations charter and its principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity and deplores the human rights and humanitarian consequences of Russia’s aggression. Not a single G20 member voted with Russia to oppose that resolution”, he said.
Reacting to the chair’s statement by India, he reaffirmed the declaration issued by the G20 leaders last year in Bali, which he quoted “strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy,” end quote.
“Russia and China were the only two countries that made clear that they would not sign on to that text. 18 members of the G20 also reaffirmed that it is and I quote “essential to uphold international law and the multilateral system.
“This includes defending all of the purposes and principles enshrined in the charter of the United Nations and adhering to international humanitarian law,” end quote.
Adding that every G20 member and virtually every country, continues to bear the cost of Russia’s war of aggression, a war that President Putin could end tomorrow, if he chose to do so.
“The United States didn’t want this war. We worked hard to prevent it. Like most countries, we want to focus on the fundamental challenges affecting the daily lives of our people.
“So even as we stand with Ukraine while it defends itself, as any nation would do in that position, we’re also determined to keep working with other countries to deliver solutions to these shared challenges.
“These challenges include the unprecedented food security crisis around the world. We’ve got to do two things at once, get food to the hungry now, but also help countries build up their agricultural productivity and resilience so that they’re less vulnerable to future shocks”.
He noted that the United States is leading on both fronts. “In addition to funding more than half of the World Food Program’s entire budget, we’ve contributed $13.5 billion to fight hunger over the last year alone, and we’ve committed more than $11 billion over the next five years to boost countries’ resilience and nutrition.
“African countries in particular have told us time and again that, more than aid, what they want is help building the sustainable capacity to feed their own people, and we’re teaming up to do just that.
“Now the unprecedented levels of food insecurity have been driven primarily by climate, by COVID, and by conflicts, but the crisis has been worsened intentionally by President Putin, who’s weaponized the hunger of people across the globe.
He thanked in large part to United Nations Secretary-General Guterres and Türkiye, adding that the Black Sea Grain Initiative loosened Russia’s stranglehold on Ukraine’s ports, allowing more than 22 million metric tons of grain and other food.
Which the Secretary of State said it’s equivalent to eight billion loaves of the bread to leave Ukraine’s ports through global markets. “And that’s lowered the price of food for people everywhere”, Blinken concluded.
