Bilateral meeting with H.E. Celinda Sosa Lunda, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

Rome – FAO Director-General, Dr QU Dongyu, met today with Her Excellency Celinda Sosa Lunda, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia at the Organization’s headquarters in Rome.

The Director-General welcomed Minister Sosa Lunda and expressed his appreciation for Bolivia’s progress in areas related to FAO’s mandate, particularly its comprehensive, multidimensional approach to protecting indigenous communities.  He also praised the Bolivian leaders for their engagement with the development agenda, which he had the opportunity to witness first-hand while visiting the country last year. In addition, he reiterated that FAO looked forward to further strengthening collaboration with Bolivia.

Minister Sosa Lunda thanked the Director-General and conveyed the appreciation of Bolivia’s President Luis Arce. Having first collaborated with FAO on a project on soils degradation over three decades ago, she said that she was very familiar with the Organization. She praised the Director-General’s personal experience in family agriculture, which, for Bolivia, continues to be at the core of its strategic approach to agricultural development.

Furthermore, Minister Sosa Lunda thanked the Director-General and FAO for supporting the International Year of Camelids. She also mentioned various initiatives concerning the Amazon region, emphasizing the need to assist local communities and take collective action against wildfires and other threats. The Minister said that Bolivia was happy to be celebrating FAO’s 80th anniversary, and recalled important work in recent years on many strategic issues concerning women, agriculture, water, and land.

The Director-General joined the Minister in praising the International Year of Camelids, which raised the country’s international visibility, and recognized the support given by Saudi Arabia and others to this initiative. The Director-General also noted he looked forward to the process for the proposed International Year of Amazonian Fruits. Finally, the Director-General referred to the First FAO Global Exhibition: From Seeds to Foods, which is scheduled to take place from 10 to 13 October 2025 in Rome, in the context of the 2025 World Food Forum and FAO’s 80th anniversary celebrations. He highlighted that the exhibition would serve as a platform for hundreds of exhibitors from around the world to take visitors on a journey of discovery along the value chains of crops, horticulture, livestock, forestry and fishery.