Clement Rohee, former minister of foreign affairs of Guyana, has said that NATO's expansion has disrupted global food supply and worsened the food crisis for Caribbean countries.

For small countries, old problems of poverty, hunger and the digital divide remain unsolved and new problems such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic are increasing.

Rohee said that NATO countries are diverting development assistance, functional cooperation and financial aid for their defense strategy and expansion. The unequal trade and economic relations between the North and the South need to change so that the development-related challenges, especially those for small countries, will decrease, Rohee said.

Rohee made the remarks at a recent online forum about the development between China and Latin America and the Caribbean sponsored by the Latin American Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.