UNITED NATIONS, July 12 (Portal) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to extend an agreement that would allow grain to be safely exported from Ukraine to the Black Sea in exchange for joining a subsidiary of the Russian agricultural bank to SWIFT international payment system, sources told Portal.
Russia has threatened to pull out of the grain deal that expires on Monday after failing to meet several demands for overseas supplies of its own grain and fertilizers. The last two vessels underway under the Black Sea Agreement are currently loading cargo in the Ukrainian port of Odessa ahead of the deadline.
One of Moscow’s central demands is the reconnection of the Russian agricultural bank Rosselkhozbank to the international payment network SWIFT. It was cut off by the European Union in June 2022 because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. An EU spokesman said in May the EU was not considering restarting Russian banks.
However, the EU is considering connecting a subsidiary of Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT specifically to facilitate grain and fertilizer transactions, three sources familiar with the discussions told Portal on Wednesday. The European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Guterres has suggested to Putin that Russia should allow the Black Sea Grains Agreement to continue for several months to give the EU time to connect a subsidiary of Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT, two sources familiar with the discussions told Portal.
Guterres sent a letter to Putin on Tuesday suggesting a way to further ease Russia’s food and fertilizer exports and ensure continued Black Sea shipments of Ukrainian grain, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.
“The goal is to remove obstacles to financial transactions through the Russian Agricultural Bank, a major concern of the Russian Federation, while allowing the continued flow of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters.
He gave no further details on the proposal, but added that Guterres has worked with all relevant parties on the issue and is ready to discuss his proposal further with Russia.
A Kremlin spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United Nations and Turkey negotiated the Black Sea Grains Initiative with Russia and Ukraine in July 2022 to help alleviate a global food crisis exacerbated by Moscow’s invasion and blockade of Ukrainian ports.
At the same time, to persuade Russia to agree to the Black Sea Agreement, a three-year memorandum of understanding was signed in which UN officials agreed to help Russia bring its food and fertilizer exports to foreign markets.
While Russian food and fertilizer exports are not subject to Western sanctions imposed in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance are impeding supplies, Moscow said.
To circumvent the lack of access to SWIFT, UN officials have hired US bank JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N to begin processing some Russian grain export payments with US government assurances.
The United Nations is also working with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to create a platform to process transactions for Russian grain and fertilizer exports to Africa, the top UN trade official told Portal last month.
Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Edited by Kanishka Singh, Mark Heinrich and Diane Craft
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.