FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva and Sergei Mikhailov, CEO of TASS News Agency, at the signature ceremony in Moscow.

24 June 2015, Moscow - The Russian news agency TASS and FAO have agreed to work together to raise public awareness on issues related to food security, food safety and nutrition.

A Memorandum of Understanding outlining the collaboration was signed yesterday at TASS's headquarters in Moscow by FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva and TASS's Chief Executive Officer Sergei Mikhailov.

"By signing this Memorandum we have made one more important step towards meeting our global targets," said Graziano da Silva at the signing ceremony. "We share the same vision with TASS that providing access to reliable information is a powerful tool in providing food security and sustainable development. I look forward to a long-term and fruitful collaboration between FAO and TASS".

"We highly appreciate the Memorandum signed today. We believe that the problem of food security, which FAO is trying to solve, is extremely important," said Mikhailov.

The new partnership agreement aims to foster the production and dissemination of Russian-language news and information related hunger eradication, food security, nutrition, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, climate change and sustainable development. When reporting on these issues, TASS's journalists will tap into FAO's expertise and analysis and the Organization's latest food and agricultural statistics, trends and infographics.

TASS has been Russia's leading news agency since 1904. It delivers more than 100 news products covering political, economic, social, cultural and sports events at home and around the globe. The TASS network consists of 70 regional centres and offices in Russia and 68 foreign bureaus in 63 countries.

Over the past several years FAO has signed partnership agreements with a number of news organizations around the globe in order to raise public awareness of hunger and agricultural development issues. This includes Spain's EFE news agency, the Emirates News Agency (WAM), The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ), Inter Press Service (IPS), National Geographic Magazine, and the Thompson Reuters Foundation.