UNITED NATIONS- If Russia does not agree to extend a deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertilizer from Ukrainian ports, it is unlikely Western states will continue cooperating with UN officials helping Moscow with its exports, the United Nations aid chief said on Friday.
Russia has threatened to quit the deal, which expires on July 17, because several demands to dispatch its own grain and fertilizer have not been met. The last three ships traveling under the deal are loading cargoes at the Ukrainian port of Odesa and are likely to depart on Monday.
“The world has seen the value of the Black Sea Initiative … this isn’t something you chuck away,” the UN ‘s Martin Griffiths told reporters.
The United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative with Russia and Ukraine in July 2022 to help tackle a global food crisis worsened by Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor and blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy discussed the deal with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Friday.
“We are working on how long we can extend (the deal) after July 17. Our hope is that, it will be extended at least once every three months, not every two months. We will make an effort in this regard and try to increase the duration of it to two years,” Erdogan said in a joint news conference with Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy said the Black Sea deal was important to help the world fight hunger.
“It is crucial that we take action in such a way that the life of the grain corridor, and therefore the lives of other people, does not depend on the mood with which the President of the Russian Federation wakes up,” Zelenskiy said.
More than 32 million tons of corn, wheat and other grains have been exported by Ukraine under the arrangement. Russia has complained that not enough reaches poor countries, but the United Nations argues that it has benefited those states by helping lower food prices more than 20 percent globally. – Reuters
