2023-05-27 01:43:00
NEW YORK, May 26 (Xinhua) — The United Nations continues to promote Russian food and fertilizer exports under a side agreement to the Black Sea Grains Initiative, which enables the export grain and other Ukrainian agricultural products from Black Sea ports, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said on Friday.
Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Rebeca Grynspan, and her team continue to “work at full speed” to ensure the full implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on Russian exports of food and of Russian fertilizers, he assured.
The United Nations is working with the African Export-Import Bank to create a financing platform that enables efficient transactions between Russian exporters and African buyers, Dujarric said.
If Rosselkhozbank does not return to the SWIFT system and no progress is made on other systemic issues that are impeding Russia’s agricultural exports, the Black Sea Grains Initiative will also have to find alternatives, it said on Thursday. the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.
“Obviously the reinstatement of Russian banks involved in the fertilizer and food trade, which are not subject to sanctions, would facilitate the implementation. But as you know, this is not a decision of the the purview of the United Nations,” noted the UN spokesperson.
“We are trying to push things forward in different ways, but always with the same goal: to provide as much food and fertilizer as possible to those who desperately need it,” he said.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed separately by Russia and Ukraine with Turkey and the UN on July 22, 2022 in Istanbul. Initially concluded for 120 days, the agreement was extended in mid-November 2022 for an additional 120 days, until March 18. On that day, Russia only agreed to extend it for 60 days, i.e. until May 18. On May 17, she agreed to a further 60-day extension. END
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