The “good news” was first reported by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “The agreement on the grain agreement, concluded on July 22, 2022, expired tomorrow (May 18). It has been decided to extend the agreement on the Black Sea Grain Initiative for two months,” said he declared. According to the Turkish leader, this became possible thanks to the constructive approaches of Russia and Ukraine. As Erdogan assured, Ankara will make every effort to implement all the terms of the agreement.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, confirmed the statement of the Turkish President. “Thus, there is a chance not in words, but in deeds to help ensure global food security, above all, to help the countries that need it most,” the diplomat noted. At the same time, Zakharova pointed out that “the principle assessments of the Istanbul agreements have not changed”. “Distortions should be corrected as soon as possible,” the Russian Foreign Ministry official said, adding that experts would deal with this on an ongoing basis, as they did all the time. “We have reasons to work. On the designated subjects which are not closed and which represent problems for us, the work will continue. We start from the need to implement the parameters which we have declared, which have been agreed jointly,” Zakharova said.
The Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, for his part, explained Moscow’s decision to accept an extension of the agreement in the hope that the problems raised by the Russian side will nevertheless be resolved. . “And the sooner the better,” added the diplomat.
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p class=””>Moscow has repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that the extension of the Istanbul agreements is possible only if the interests of the Russian Federation are taken into account. The Russian side did not set any additional conditions. We are only talking about the elements that were included in the agreements and sealed by the obligations of the parties to this global agreement. It includes not only the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which regulates the export of grain from Ukraine, but also a Russia-UN memorandum, which aims to ensure access of Russian agricultural products to world markets. However, only the first part of this package of agreements has been implemented so far. And Rosselkhozbank is still under sanctions and has not been reconnected to the SWIFT system, the supply of agricultural machinery and spare parts to the Russian Federation has been limited, and insurance and port access restrictions against Russian ships and goods were not lifted.
UN Secretary General António Guterres acknowledged that “unresolved issues remain, representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN will continue their discussions.” “I hope that we will reach an overall agreement to improve, expand and expand the initiative,” he said.
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