In a meeting between representatives of the UN and the RF Ministry of foreign affairs, the agreements reached on July 22, 2022 in Istanbul were discussed. The Russian delegation was headed by Sergey Vershinin, RF Deputy Minister of foreign affairs, and that of the UN was headed by UN Conference on Trade and Development Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan and UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths.
The Istanbul agreements have a packaged nature and include the ‘Black Sea initiative’ aimed at exporting Ukrainian grain and raw materials for fertilizers production including ammonia and a Russia-UN Memorandum on normalizing Russia’s agricultural exports, the Ministry reminded.
During the talks, the Russian party noted that while the deal has enabled stable commercial exports of grain from Ukraine bringing considerable profit to Kiev, Russia’s exporters of agriproducts continue facing barriers and the exemptions from the sanction announced by Washington, Brussels and London do not actually work.
After the first round of the negotiations, RF Deputy Minister of foreign affairs Sergey Vershinin said that “The Russian side, acknowledging the package nature of the Istanbul agreements tabled by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, does not object to another extension of the Black Sea initiative after the expiration of its second term on March 18, but only for 60 days”.
The UN said in a statement that it remains “fully committed” to the Black Sea grain initiative, as well as to efforts to facilitate the export of Russian food and fertilizers. The UN will do “everything possible” to preserve the integrity of the grain deal and ensure its continuity, it confirmed.
According to the UN, the grain initiative has allowed the exports of 24 mn tons of grains and over 1,600 secure vessel voyages through the Black Sea with 55% of food exports going to developing countries.