New York [US], September 1 : Laying emphasis on reviving the Black Sea grain deal, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sent a new proposal to Russia, The Washington Post reported.
The proposal aimed at getting its grain and fertilizer to global markets in hopes of reviving the deal that allowed Ukraine to ship almost 33,000 tons of grain at a time of growing global hunger.
However, Moscow wasn’t satisfied with the letter that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week.
Speaking at a press conference Thursday after meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Lavrov said he had given Ankara “a list of actions” that the West would have to take in order to resume Ukrainian shipments, The Post reported.
Guterres told UN reporters on Thursday that he had written a letter to Lavrov with “a set of concrete proposals, allowing to create the conditions for the renewal of the Black Sea initiative.”
“We have some concrete solutions for the concerns allowing for an effective, or more effective access of Russian food and fertilizers to global markets at adequate prices,” The Post quoted Guterres as saying.
The UN chief further stated that a renewed Black Sea initiative must be “stable” – and not move “from crisis to crisis, from suspension to suspension.” The original agreement for 120 days was extended once for 120 days and twice for 60 days.
“I believe that working seriously we can have a positive solution for everybody —for Ukraine, for the Russian Federation, but more important than everything else for the world in a moment in which so many countries are facing enormous difficulties in relation to guaranteeing the food security of their populations,” The Post quoted Guterres as saying to the reporters.
Guterres said that he saw little prospect of peace in Ukraine before the General Assembly’s annual meeting of world leaders starting September 18. He said that’s why he stressed the need to “take measures to reduce the dramatically negative impacts of this war in relation to the world.”
Meanwhile, Turkey's Foreign Minister said that his meeting with Lavrov, that Moscow was in “preparation” for an upcoming meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
Describing the grain deal as “quite a complicated and laborious job,” Fidan said when Erdogan and Putin get together they “will take a more strategic and political view.”
Fidan is also due to meet with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was involved in the deal’s negotiations, on September 1.
After the meeting, Lavrov had told reporters, “As soon as talks turn into concrete decisions, we’ll be ready to resume the Ukrainian part of the grain package that same day,” The Post reported.
Notably, the UN and Turkey brokered the deal in July 2022 that allowed Ukraine to ship grain and other foodstuffs from three Black Sea ports. A separate memorandum between the UN and Russia pledged to overcome obstacles to Moscow’s shipment of food and fertilizer to world markets, according to The Post.
The deal followed the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict which sent global food prices skyrocketing because the two countries are major “breadbaskets” for the world.
Earlier in July, Russia suspended the Black Sea grain initiative alleging that the Ukraine deal largely benefitted richer nations and that Russia still had difficulties obtaining financing, insurance and shipping for its fertilizer and grain shipments.
Data from the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, which organized the Ukraine shipments, shows that 57 per cent of the grain from Ukraine went to developing nations, with the top destination being China, which received nearly a quarter of the food, The Washington Post reported.
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