Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated Thursday that the United Nations is “actively engaged” in efforts to attempt to enhance Russia’s grain and fertilizer exports to persuade Moscow to once more permit the protected exports of Ukrainian grain by the Black Sea.
“We believe that it’s necessary to create a system of mutual guarantee,” Guterres instructed reporters on the sidelines of the Association of South East Asian Nations summit in Jakarta.
“Guarantee that the Russian Federation is able, indeed, to overcome difficulties that still exist, even if many have been solved and, at the same time, guarantees that we will have the restoration of the Black Sea initiative,” he stated.
Guterres final week despatched Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “a set of concrete proposals” aimed toward reviving the Black Sea grain deal, which Russia stop in July – a yr after it was brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye.
Moscow had complained that its agricultural exports confronted obstacles and never sufficient Ukrainian grain was going to nations in want beneath the Black Sea deal. Ukraine and Russia are each main grain exporters.
The Black Sea grain deal aimed to fight a world meals disaster worsened by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s grain and fertilizer exports should not topic to Western sanctions however Moscow stated restrictions on funds, logistics and insurance coverage have been a barrier to shipments.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday dismissed the U.N. bid to revive the Black Sea deal as “a new dose of promises.”
It additionally publicly outlined the proposals made by Guterres in his letter to Lavrov: “reconnecting a subsidiary of the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT, creating an insurance platform, unblocking the foreign assets of Russian fertilizer producers and enabling our ships to enter European ports.”
“In exchange, they want Russia to guarantee that the Black Sea Initiative resumes immediately and in full,” the ministry stated in an announcement.
A U.N. official, talking on situation of anonymity, confirmed Russia’s description of the U.N. proposals.
Guterres on Thursday described the issues confronted by the U.N. in serving to Russia overcome obstacles to its exports.
“The difficulties we are facing to get the goodwill of the other partners around the world are dramatically increased when the Russian Federation bombs harbor installations and warehouses of grain,” Guterres stated in Jakarta.
After withdrawing from the Black Sea pact, Russia started concentrating on Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure on the Black Sea and Danube River and world grain costs spiked.
Russia has additionally threatened to focus on Ukraine-bound civilian vessels, prompting Kyiv to reply by asserting related measures towards ships certain for Russia or Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
