Two senior UN officials will travel to Moscow to discuss the future of the grain deal with Russia
Two senior UN officials will meet with Russian authorities in Moscow next week to discuss the future of the deal on grain exports through the Black Sea, which Russia unilaterally abandoned in July, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported this Friday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin announced that the head of the UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rebeca Grynspan, will arrive in the Russian capital next Monday. “We will hold consultations on food security and reiterate our position and assessment on the full range of issues” affecting the issue, he said.
Although Russia has suspended its participation in the grain agreement that allowed Ukraine and Russia to export their grain from their ports across the Black Sea, the three-year memorandum between Moscow and the United Nations remains in force, Vershinin said. This is a document that stipulates that Russia can export its agricultural products and fertilizers in parallel once the logistical and banking obstacles related to Western sanctions are removed.
Russia has denounced that this part of the agreement was never fulfilled, which is why it announced on July 17 the suspension of its participation, effectively invalidating the validity of the Black Sea humanitarian corridor through which ships exported Ukrainian grain.
To return to the agreement, Moscow is demanding, among other things, the reconnection of the agricultural bank Rosseljozbank to SWIFT, the lifting of sanctions on spare parts for agricultural machinery, the release of logistics and transport insurance, and the resumption of operations of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, which exploded on June 5 . EFE