State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday that a “critical moment” had arrived in negotiations over the UN-brokered Black Sea Grains Initiative, which Washington hopes will happen. it will be extended until it expires on March 18.
Russia has offered to extend a deal allowing safe grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, but only for 60 days.
Price said the world needed the initiative, which he said brought grain to developing countries and helped lower food prices.
“This is an essential tool at a critical time,” Price said.
Russia on Monday offered to extend a deal allowing safe grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, but only for 60 days, after the deal was last extended by 120 days. At the same time, the UN is committed to doing everything possible to ensure the integrity of the agreement.
The Black Sea Grains Initiative, organized by Russia and Ukraine and brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July, aimed to avert a global food crisis by allowing grain to be exported safely from three Ukrainian ports blocked by the Russian invasion.
The agreement, extended for 120 days in November, will be extended on Saturday. But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said after talks with UN officials in Geneva that Moscow was ready to extend the deal for just 60 days, citing restrictions on Russian agricultural exporters.
According to him, Russia “does not oppose the forthcoming extension of the Black Sea Initiative after its second term expires on March 18, but only for 60 days. Our future position will be determined by tangible progress in normalizing our agricultural exports, not in words, but in deeds,” Vershinin added.
Russia argues that while the country’s agricultural exports have not been overtly harassed by the West, sanctions imposed on Russia’s payments, logistics and insurance industries have created an obstacle to its ability to export its own grain and fertilizer.
The UN said it took note of Russia’s position and assured that the UN remained “fully committed to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, as well as to efforts to promote Russian exports of food and ‘fertilizer”.
“The UN Secretary-General confirmed that the UN will do its utmost to maintain the integrity of the Black Sea Grains Initiative and ensure its continuity,” the statement said.
Ned Price declared that Washington supports the extension and the enlargement of the negotiations: “We know that the world needs it. We certainly hope and expect them to grow.
A senior Ukrainian government official who brokered the original deal said Kiev viewed the 60-day extension as a violation of the terms of the deal.
“The agreement makes it clear that an extension is possible for at least 120 days,” he told Reuters. “To extend it for 60 days, you have to make changes to the agreement.”
European traders said uncertainty surrounding the talks, particularly news that Russia was only asking for a 60-day extension, was a factor in the price spike on the Euronext Paris wheat market.
