Russia-UN Talks on Food Exports Produce No Concrete Results So Far, Senior Diplomat Reveals

© Sputnik . RIA Novosti / Go to the mediabankSacks of flour at JSC "Melitopol Elevator" in Melitopol.
Sacks of flour at JSC Melitopol Elevator in Melitopol. - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 17.12.2023
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GENEVA (Sputnik) - As part of the grain deal, Russia and the UN signed a memorandum of understanding to unblock Russian grain and fertilizer exports via the Black Sea. However, according to Moscow, it has never been implemented due to Western sanctions.
Russia and the United Nations have not reached any concrete results during regular discussions on the fulfillment of the memorandum on Russian agricultural exports that is effective until 2025, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said on Sunday.
"We are in favor of such contacts. We have planned that they will continue in Moscow, they are taking place regularly, but we also need a result. This is a very important issue, we talked about it when assessing the way the Istanbul agreements worked. We said that we could not be satisfied with the implementation of the Russia-UN memorandum, because we do not achieve concrete results and face difficulties, despite statements that agricultural exports and exports of fertilizers from Russia do not allegedly fall under sanctions," Vershinin told reporters in Geneva.
The deputy foreign minister has also said that Russia praises the efforts of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, but would like to obtain "concrete results."
He added that the re-connection of Russia's Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT payment system and providing Russian agricultural producers and fertilizer manufacturers with a possibility to ensure financial support for their transactions was also an important issue during the discussions.
Wheat harvesting in the Krasnoyarsk Krai. - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 17.12.2023
Russia Not Interested in Grain Deal Renewal, Agriculture Minister States
Russia was a party to the grain deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, from July 2022 until July 2023. The deal was aimed at facilitating exports of Ukrainian agricultural products from Black Sea ports during the hostilities that began in February 2022. The package agreement also included a memorandum of understanding between Russia and the UN to unblock Russian grain and fertilizer exports via the Black Sea, which, according to Moscow, has not been implemented due to Western sanctions.
On July 18, the grain deal, which provided for a humanitarian corridor to allow exports of Ukrainian grain over the past year, expired, as Russia did not renew its participation in the deal. Moscow emphasized that the deal's component on facilitating Russian grain and fertilizer exports had not been fulfilled and that most of the supplies were ending up in rich European states instead of poor countries in Africa.
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