UN chief Guterres goes to Washington to save “grain deal”

UkrAgroConsult

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will travel to Washington to meet with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken as part of efforts to continue to save the Black Sea grain deal. This was reported by the New York Times.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the agreement was “at a dead end” and that it was about to expire.

Now Guterres is going to meet with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and members of Congress after the meeting with Lavrov.

The two sides are expected to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine and the grain deal, which is increasingly under threat due to Russian complaints that aspects of the agreement that would facilitate Russian grain and fertilizer exports are not being implemented.

“Now is a very delicate time to renew the Black Sea Initiative,” said Guterres’ spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric.

At a press conference at the UN, Mr. Lavrov repeated complaints that Russia is having trouble selling its own grain and fertilizers because of sanctions on its financial transactions.

The United Nations emphasized the importance of the deal, which allowed more than 29 million tons of grain from Ukraine to reach world markets, including as part of humanitarian aid. The United Nations and Turkey helped broker the agreement last July to allow Ukraine to export grain across the Black Sea.

The United Nations said it was working to move forward with a parallel part of the agreement related to the resumption of exports of Russian ammonia – a fertilizer ingredient – via a pipeline through Ukraine to the Black Sea port of Odesa.

“But there are still a few obstacles that we are trying to overcome,” Dujarric said.

On Monday, the United Nations said that Guterres had handed Lavrov a letter addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin outlining a new proposal to extend the deal.

“So far, we do not see the willingness of Western countries to do what is necessary for the successful implementation of the Secretary-General’s initiative. We will reconsider his ideas,” Lavrov said.