United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres unveiled an “action plan” to expand Ukrainian grain exports during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on Monday in New York.
Guterres delivered with Lavrov “a letter to President Vladimir Putin outlining a draft action plan to improve, extend and broaden” the agreement, a spokesman for the UN chief said.
The agreement allowing the export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports has been in force since July last year. After the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian ports were blocked by Russia. The export of Ukrainian grain is vital for global food security.
A similar letter was sent to two other signatories of the Black Sea Grain Initiative – Ukraine and Turkey.
The grain deal was renewed for the second time on March 19, 2023.
But instead of a 120-day extension, Russia insisted on an extension of just 60 days, citing its dissatisfaction with hampering its own grain exports.
Earlier this month, Moscow said that for Russia to extend the deal after May 18, a number of conditions had to be met.
There are no sanctions against Russian food and fertilizer exports. The existing problems relate to secondary sanctions imposed on shipping and insurance companies, as well as banks.
The Russian Foreign Ministry presented a list of conditions to extend the agreement, including permission to reconnect Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT payment system. Moscow is also demanding the resumption of exports of its agricultural machinery, spare parts and related services.
António Guterres said he “takes note of the concerns expressed by Russia” regarding fertilizers.
“We will study the ideas that (the general secretary) laid out in his letter,” Lavrov said in comments published by the Russian Foreign Ministry, referring to the “lack of progress” on the issue so far.
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