The UN assist chief mentioned on Friday that Türkiye performs a “very active” function within the Black Sea grain deal because the deadline is nearing to increase the settlement past July 17.
“We speak two or three times a week with Ankara about it,” Martin Griffiths advised reporters at UN headquarters in New York. “Turkey is a big, impressive advocate and a diplomatic actor in this”.
His remarks got here amid issues that Russia is not going to agree to increase the grain deal.
The settlement, initially signed in July of final yr in Istanbul by Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine, aimed to renew grain exports from Ukrainian ports. These exports had been halted as a result of battle between Russia and Ukraine that started in February.
On May 18, the deal was prolonged for an extra 60 days, guaranteeing the continuation of grain exports beneath the settlement.
Russia is in search of the removing of obstacles to its fertilizer exports so as to agree to a different extension of the grain deal together with the inclusion of its state-owned Russian Agricultural Bank within the SWIFT worldwide fee system.
Moscow additionally calls for the resumption of its ammonia exports by way of Ukraine.
There aren’t any Western sanctions on Russian exports of meals and fertilizer however Russia says banking restrictions and funds impression its exports.
TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES
Griffiths warned of horrible penalties until the grain deal is prolonged.
“We don’t want to go through this every three months, It’s hugely damaging to commercial confidence. It’s damaging to the impact on food prices. And it’s damaging to the people in the global south we deal with who depend on certain amount of reliability of supply,” he mentioned.
“We are now going through the great harvesting season.. when the harvest comes into the silos…and if it doesn’t start moving around the world, the (food) prices …will spike again.”
In a press release, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres additionally recalled the indispensable function meals and fertilizer exports from Russia and Ukraine proceed to play in help of world meals safety.
He referred to as for the complete and continued implementation of the agreements signed in Istanbul final yr.
“The agreements are contributing to sustained reductions in world meals costs, which at the moment are greater than 23 per cent under the report highs reached in March final yr,” mentioned the assertion.
He urged all involved events to prioritize world meals safety.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
